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WERNER'S - 
READINGS®. 
RECITATIONS 



0. Lincoln 
45 Celebrations 



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PANTOMIMES 

By MARY TUCKER MAGILL 

Pantomimes, or Wordless Poems. Special edition, 50c. This book contains 

1. PANTOMIMIC EXERCISES, fully described and accompanied with origina 

music, depicting AFFECTION, ANGER, EXPECTATION, FAREWELL 
FEAR, JOY, RELIGIOUS DEVOTION, SORROW. 

2. Pantomimes (fully described) of "GINEVRA," "QUEEN KATHARINE'; 

VISION," " SEVEN TIMES THREE," " ' W^INTER'S TALE,' SCEl^ ] 
FROM." Tliese are action poems without words, 

3. Also the recitations: "AUNT ANARKY'S PRESENTS," " BAKER't 

WIPE," "BORROWERS," "KASSERBANKER." 



OTHER PANTOMIMES BY MISS MAGILL 

(joldenhair and the Bears. 35c. Child. 20 min. 3m, If. Girl with golden haii 
goes to house where live three bears (impersonated by boys), eats iheir food anc 
.gets into their bed. Bears come home, are surprised to tind food gone and some 
one in bed. Girl, at first frightened, soon feels safe, and scene ends with dance, 
Music given. 

Rory O'More, 35c. Comedy. Irish dialect. 15 min. Im, If. Poem by Samuej 
Lover, pantomime by Myra Pollard and Goodwal Dickerman. Peasant costumes. 
Scene between .saucy lover and coquettish girl, he kissing her eight times and 
then taking another, as " there is luck in odd numbers." Music given. 6 photo- 
graphs from life. 

Seven Times One. 35c. Child. 15 min. Boy or girl. Poem by Jean Ingelow, 
Unusually dainty and poetic child entertainment. Music given. 3 photographs 
from life. 

Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid? 35c. Comedy. 10 min. Im, If 
Pantomimed by Myra Pollard and Goodwal Dickerman. Last century costumes- 
girl as country maiden, man as city swell. Man takes back proposal on learning 
girl has no money, she retorting that nobody asked him to marry her. Music 
given. 7 photographs from life. 



*** Any of these books sent postpaid on receipt of price *;j;*^ 

ADDRESS THE PUBLISHERS: 

EDGAR S. WERNER & CO.. 43 E. 19th St., New Vork. 



Werner's 
Readinp^s and Recitations 



No. 45 



Emcoln Celebrations— Part I 



COMPILED, ARRANGED AND WRITTEN BY 



STANLEY SCHELL 



^ 




»»;>■=-. 



EDGAR S. WERNER & COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



Copyright, 1910, by Edgar S. Werner. 






ICtttrnln ®ag- 



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All nature rlntlyph in pureat mtjtte 

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Anb path a natton'a final toll. 
iBlazeb brtgl|t in 3fame*a nnhying arroU 

i^ta name muat Xvat for aye anb age 
Anh leab tt|e iiartgr*a lonor roll — 



(2) 

ICI.A273751 



CONTENTS. 



."^ PAGE 

Abe Lincoln. — Dennis Hanks 13 

"Abolitionist and Slaveholder.— Winston Churchill 97 

^ Achievement and Patriotic Service 141 

,?• Acrostics 131, 152, 165 

^ "America" 122 

Ann Rutledge and Abraham Lincoln. — Eleanor Atkinson. . . 31 

Another Washington. — Joel Benton 106 

As Orator. — Horace White 185 

Assassination of Lincoln. — Thomas Dixon, Jr 36 

"Battle-Hymn of the Republic" 134 

Bible. — Abraham Lincoln 125 

Bursting of the Storm. — Thomas Dixon, Jr 40 

Cabinet and Emancipation Proclamation.^ — James Oppenheim 174 

Calmed by the "^'Star-Spangled Banner." — Thomas Nast. ... 110 

Carrying a Girl's Trunk 180 

"Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" 136 

Common People's Sympathy for Lincoln 145 

Crown for Lincoln 164 

Crown with Evergreens Fair 57 

Death of Lincoln.— Charles G. Halpin 104 

Defense of Tom Grayson. — Edward Eggleston 76 

Drill of the Patriots 156 

Emancipation Group. — John Greenleaf Whittier 96 

Funeral Procession. — Thomas Dixon, Jr 43 

George Washington 152 

Great Object-Lesson 149 

"Hail Columbia" 128 

Hand of Lincoln. — Edmund Clarence Stedman 22 

Helping the Mother-Bird. — Frank E. Channon 173 

(3) 

Werner's Readings No. 45. 



4 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Hero New. — James Russell Lowell 84 

Historical Exercises for Lincoln's Day 140 

History of Lincoln in Brief 132 

Honest Abe of the West. — Edmund Clarence Stedman 89 

How Lincoln's Life Was Saved. — Austin Gollaher 176 

Lew Wallace at the Lincoln-Douglas Debate 134 

Lincoln. — George Taylor 2i 

Lincoln. — Emilio Castelar 25 

Lincoln. — James G. Clark 27 

Lincoln. — W. J. Lampton 34 

Lincoln. — H. C. Deming 49 

Lincoln. — Henry Ward Bee<;her 50 

Lincoln. — Charles E. Hughes 67 

Lincoln. — Charles H. Fowler 88 

Lincoln. — Theodore Roosevelt 92 

Lincoln. — Jonathan P. Dolliver 101 

Lincoln. — Henry Cabot Lodge 103 

Lincoln.— William H. Taft 108 

Lincoln Acrostic 152 

Lincoln and Gettysburg. — George William Curtis 105 

Lincoln and His Children. — James Alorgan 183 

Lincoln and the Little Horse. — Mary K. Hyde 181 

Lincoln's Arrival in Springfield. — Joshua Speed 176 

Lincoln as Boy and Man 21 

Lincoln, The Immortal. — Henry Watterson 86 

Lincoln, The Man of the People. — Edwin Markham 90 

Lincoln's Belief in the Union 148 

Lincoln's Burial. — James Thompson AIcKay 44 

Lincoln's Day 2 

Lincoln's Day 121 

Lincoln's Departure from Springfield as Told by Billy 

Brown.— Ida Tarbell 54 

Lincoln's Dream. — John Jerome Rooney 28 

Lincoln's Faith in the Union 148 

Werner's Readings No. 45. 



CONTENTS. 5 

PAGE 

Lincoln's Last Dream. — Hezekiah Buttervvorth 52 

Lincoln's Statue 140 

Lincoln's Stories in Court 180 

Lincoln's Story 141 

Man We JNIourn To-day. — Richard Henry Stoddard 69 

Marse Linkum's Alistek. — Mary Fairfax Childs 58 

Masterful, Great ]\Ian. — Henry Tyrrell 114 

Alother of Lincoln. — General John C. Black 61 

•"My Old Kentucky Home" 146 

Nation's Grief and Rage. — Thomas Dixon, Jr 41 

News at the White House. — S. H. M. Byers 45 

O Lincoln. — Ross L. Finney 64 

One of Lincoln's Roommates Speaks. — Robertus Love 99 

Our Heroes 154 

Our i\Iartyred Hero, Lincoln. — Marietta Hoover Dunn. ... 35 

Our Pilot' 48 

Pardon 60 

Patient Abraham Ill 

Personality of Lincoln. — Isaac N. Arnold 179 

Proper Length of a Man's Legs 177 

Quotations from Lincoln 166 

Rail-Splitter Drill 137 

St. Gaudens's Lincoln Statue, Chicago. — Horace Spencer 

Fiske 91 

Self-Reliance of Lincoln 153 

Self-Sacrificing Soldier Saved 115 

Shepherd of the People. — Phillips Brooks 66 

Short Anecdotes 187 

"Star-Spangled Banner" 139 

Statesman, Ruler, Hero, Martyr. — Susie M. Best 75 

Story of Lincoln.— C. C. Hassler 102 

Tableaux Vivant : War, Slavery, Peace 135 

Tad Lincoln and the Street L'rchins 186 

This Was Abraham 107 

Werner's Readings No. 45. 



6 CONTENTS. 

VKGE 

Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. — Edna Dean Proctor 74 

To Lincoln's Bust in Bronze. — Richard Watson Gilder 73 

To Nature's Nobleman 155 

To the Spirit of Abraham Lincoln. — Richard Watson Gilder 63 

True American. — Stanley Schell 158 

Victory's Joy Silenced by the Assassin's Bullet. — -Thomas 

Dixon, Jr 36 

Visit to the Five Points Sunday School 178 

Was Lincoln King?— Ella M. Bangs 109 

Washington Acrostic 151 

Washington and Lincoln 126 

Washington and Lincoln Compared , 151 

When Lincoln Died. — J. A. Edgerton 72 



Werner's Readings No. 46. 



INDEX TO AUTHORS. 



PAGE 

Arnold, Isaac N 179 

Atkinson, Eleanor 31 

Bangs, Ella M 109 

Beecher, Henry Ward " 50 

Benton, Joel ^ 106 

Best, Susie M 75 

Black, General John C 61 

Brooks, Phillips 66 

Butterworth, Hezekiah 52 

Byers, S. H. M 45 

Castelar, Emilio 25 

Channon, Frank E 173 

Childs, Mary Fairfax 58 

Churchill, Winston 97 

Clark, James G 27 

Curtis, George William 105 

Deming, H. C 49 

Dixon, Thomas, Jr 36, 40, 41, 43 

DolFiver, Jonathan P 101 

Dunn, Marietta Hoover 35 

Edgerton, J. A 72 

Eggleston, Edward 76 

Finney, Ross L 64 

Fiske, Horace Spencer 91 

Fowler, Charles H 88 

Gilder, Richard Watson 63, 7Z 

Gollaher, Austin 176 

Halpin, Charles G 104 

Hanks, Dennis 13 

Hassler, C. C 102 

(7) 

Werner's Readings No, 45, 



8 INDEX TO AUTHORS. 

PAGE 

Hughes, Charles E 67 

Hyde, Mary K 181 

Lampton, W. J 34 

Lincohi, Abraham 125 

Lodge, Henry Cabot 103 

Love, Robertus ♦. 99 

Lowell, James Russell 84 

McKay, James Thompson 44 

Markham, Edwin 90 

Morgan, James 183 

Nast, Thomas 110 

Oppenheim, James 174 

Phillips, Hartie 1 165 

Proctor, Edna Dean 74 

Rooney, John Jerome 28 

Roosevelt, Theodore 92 

Schell, Stanley 

Speed, Joshua 176 

Stedman, Edmund Clarence , 22, 89 

Stoddard, Richard Henry 69 

Taft, William H 108 

Tarbell, Ida 54 

Taylor, George 23 

Tyrrell, Henry 114 

Watterson, Henry 86 

White, Horace 185 

Whittier, John Greenleaf 7 96 



Werner's Readings No. 45. 



CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. 



ADDRESSES, ORATIONS, SPEECHES. 

PAGE 

Another Washington. — Verse address to picture 106 

As Orator 185 

Hand of Lincohi. — Verse address 22 

Lincohi. — EmiHo Castelar 25 

Lincoln. — H. C. Deming 49 

Lincohi. — Henry Ward Beecher 50 

Lincoln. — Charles E. Hnghes 67 

Lincoln. — Charles H. Fowler 88 

Lincoln. — Theodore Roosevelt 92 

Lincoln. — Jonathan P. Dolliver 101 

Lincoln. — Henry Cabot Lodge 103 

Lincoln.— William H. Taft 108 

Lincoln and Gettysburg 105 

Lincoln, the Immortal 86 

Lincoln's Statue. — Brief address to bust or statue 140 

Man We Mourn To-day. — Verse address 69 

Mother of Lincoln 61 

O Lincoln. — Verse address 64 

St. Gaudens's Lincoln Statue, Chicago. — Verse address... 91 

Shepherd of the People 66 

To Lincoln's Bust in Bronze. — Verse address 73 

To the Spirit of Abraham Lincoln. — \^erse address 63 

DIALOGUES, ENTERTAINMENTS, EXERCISES, PLAYS. 

Abolitionist and Slaveholder. — 2 males 97 

Acrostic: Abraham Lincoln. — Exercise for 14 165 

Acrostic : Epigrams from Lincoln's Writings for 7 131 

Crown for Lincoln. — Exercise for four or any multiple of 4. 164 
Crown with Evergreens Fair. — Exercise for several children 

with wreaths 57 

Great Object- Lesson. — Exercise for 9 149 

Historical Exercises for Lincoln's Day. — Exercise for school 140 

(9) 

Werner's Readings No. 45. 



10 CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

History of Lincoln in Brief. — Exercise for 28 132 

Lincoln Acrostic. — Bible exercise for 7 152 

Lincoln's Day. — Exercise for 20 or more 121 

Lincoln's Story. — Exercise for 4 141 

Our Pilot. — Exercise for one and class 48 

Self-Sacrificing Soldier Saved. — Drama in 3 scenes for 5 

males, 1 f. and supes 115 

Tableaux Vivant : War, Slavery, Peace. — For 4 girls or 3 

girls, 1 boy, and Lincoln portrait 135 

To Nature's Nobleman. — Exercise for 10 155 

True American. — Political play in 5 scenes for any number 

boys 158 

Washington Acrostic. — Bible exercise for 10 151 

Washington and Lincoln. — Exercise for children 126 

Washington and Lincoln Compared. — Exercise for 10 boys 

(George Washingtons) and 7 boys (Abraham Lincolns) 151 
DRILLS, MARCHES, ETC. 
Drill of the Patriots for 10 boys (George Washingtons), 7 

boys (Abraham Lincolns) , 156 

Rail-Splitter Drill for 12 boys 137 

MONOLOGUES AND RECITALS. 

Abe Lincoln. — Country-dialect prose monologue for man. . . 13 

Bible. — Brief prose recital 125 

Calmed by the "Star-Spangled Banner." — Prose recital for 

man 110 

Lew Wallace at the Lincoln-Douglas Debate. — Dramatic re- 
cital 184 

Lincoln as Boy and Man. — Verse recital for boy 21 

Lincoln's Departure from Springfield as Told by Billy 

Brown. — Country-dialect prose for man 54 

Lincoln's Last Dream. — Retrospective verse 52 

Marse Linkum's Mistek. — Serio-comic negro-dialect verse 

monologue for man 58 

News at the White House. — Verse recital 45 

Werner's Readings No. 45, 



CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. U 

PAGE 

One of Lincoln's Roommates Speaks. — Country-dialect verse 

monologue for man 99 

Patient /Vbraham. — Verse recital Ill 

Was Lincoln King? — Verse recital 109 

QUOTATIONS ABOUT LINCOLN. 

120, 155 

QUOTATIONS AND EPIGRAMS FROM LINCOLN. 
21, 24, 26, 35, 48, 51, 57, 60, 65, 68, 71, 75, 85, 87 
89, 95, 100, 104, 109, 113, 114, 125, 133, 138, 166, 167, 168, 169 

170, 171, 172 

READINGS AND RECITATIONS. 

Achievement and Patriotic Service 141 

Ann Rutledge and Abraham Lincoln 31 

Assassination of Lincoln 56 

Bursting of the Storm 40 

Common People's Sympathy for Lincoln 145 

Death of Lincoln 104 

Defense of Tom Grayson 76 

Emancipation Group 96 

Funeral Procession 43 

George Washington 1^2 

Hero Nev/ 84 

Lincoln. — George Taylor 23 

Lincoln. — James G. Clark 27 

Lincoln. — '(8 lines) ■34 

Lincoln, the ]\Ian of the People 90 

Lincoln's Belief in the Union 148 

Lincoln's Burial 44 

Lincoln's Day. — (8 lines) 2 

Lincoln's Dream 28 

Lincoln's Faith in the L^nion 148 

Masterful, Great Man 114 

Nation's Grief and Rage 41 

Werner's Readings No. 45. 



12 CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Our Martyred Hero, Lincoln 35 

Pardon 60 

Self-Reliance of Lincoln 153, 

Statesman, Ruler, Hero, Martyr 75. 

Story of Lincoln 102 

This Was Abraham 107 

Thomas and Nancy Lincoln 74 

Victory's Joy Silenced by the Assassin's Bullet 36 

When Lincoln Died .' 72 

SONGS. 

America ("My Country, 'tis of Thee") 122 

Battle-Hymn of the Republic 134 

Columbia, Gem of the Ocean ("'Red, White and Blue") .... 136 

Hail Columbia 128 

Honest Abe of the West (air "Star-Spangled Banner") .... 89 

My Old Kentucky Home 146 

Our Heroes (air suggested) 154 

Star-Spangled Banner (solo or quartet) 139 

STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN. 

Cabinet and Emancipation Proclamation 175 

Carrying a Girl's Trunk 180 

Helping the Mother-Bird 173 

How Lincoln's Life Was Saved 176 

Lincoln and the Little Horse 181 

Lincoln and His Children 183 

Lincoln's Arrival in Springfield 176 

Lincoln's Stories in Court 180 

Personality of Lincoln 179 

Proper Length of a Man's Legs 177 

Short Anecdotes About Lincoln •. 187 

Tad Lincoln and the Street Urchins 186 

Visit to the Five Points Sunday School 178 

( 1 ) Lincoln's Account 178 

(2) Superintendent's Account 178 

Werner's Readings No. 45. 








EEPRIMED KT COURTEbY OF THE COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE 



Werner's 
Readings and Recitations 



No. 45 

Copyright, 1910, by Edgar S. "Werner. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS-PART 



ABE LINCOLN. 



MONOLOGUE FOR A MAN. 



Dennis Hanks. 



[DennlB Hanks was a relative and boy- chum of Lincoln. Following monologue 
is from actual interview with Hanks.] 



Scene 



Characters 



Old man seated in easy- 
Lady 



Sitting-room interior. 

chair near table. 
Dennis Hanks, man of 89, speaker present. 

Visitor, supposed to be present. 

WANT to know what kind o^ boy Abe Lincoln was ? Well, 
I reckon I am the only one livin' that knowed him that 
arly. Knowed him the day he was born, an' lived with him most 
o' the time, till he was twenty-one an' left home fur good. "Abe," 
sez I, many a time, "if you die fust, folks'll have to come to me to 

[13] 



14 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

find out what kind o' boy you was." We used to laugh over that, 
fur it looked hke he'd Hve longer'n me. I was ten years older'n 
Abe, an' he was as strong as a boss. "Well, Denny," he'd say, 
"I don't want you to die fust, fur folks'U just nigh about pester 
me to death to larn what kind o' boy you was." 

Tom an' Nancy lived on a farm about two miles from us, when 
Abe was born. I ricollect Tom comin' to our house one cold 
mornin' in Feb'uary an' sayin' kind o' slow, "Nancy's got a boy 
baby." 

Mother got flustered an' hurried up 'er work to go over to look 
after the little feller, but I didn't have nothin' to wait fur, so I 
cut an' run the hull two mile to see my new cousin. 

You bet I was tickled to death. Babies wasn't as common as 

•blackberries in the woods o' Kentucky. Mother come over an' 

washed him an' put a yaller flannel petticoat on him, an' cooked 

some dried berries with wild honey fur Nancy, an' slicked things 

up an' went home. An' that's all the nuss'n either of 'em got. 

I rolled up in a b'ar skin an' slep' by the fireplace that night, 
so's I could see the little feller when he cried, an' Tom had to git 
up an' 'tend to him. Nancy let me hold him purty soon. Folks 
often asked me if Abe was a good-lookin' baby. Well, now, he 
looked just like any other baby, at fust — like red cherry pulp 
squeezed dry. An' he didn't improve none as he growed older. 
Abe never was much fur looks. I ricollect how Tom joked about 
Abe's long legs when he was toddlin' 'round the cabin. He growed 
out o' his clothes faster'n Nancy could make 'em. 

But he was mighty good comp'ny, solemn as a papoose, but 
interested in everything. An' he always did have fits o' cuttin' 
up. I've seen him when he was a little feller, settin' on a stool, 
starin' at a visitor. All of a sudden he'd bust out laughin' fit to 
kill. If he told us what he was laughin' at, half the time we 
couldn't see no joke. 

Pore ? We was all pore, them days, but the Lincolns was porer 
than anybody — choppin' trees an' grubbin' roots an' splittin' rails 
an' huntin' an' trappin'. Nancy was turrible ashamed o' the way 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 15 

they lived, but she knowed Tom was doin' his best, an' she wasn't 
the pesterin' kind. She was purty as a pictur an' could read an' 
write. 

It didn't seem no time till Abe was runnin' 'round in buckskin 
moccasins and breeches, a tow-line shirt an' coon-skin cap. We 
couldn't keep sheep fur the wolves, an' pore folks didn't have 
sca'cely any flax except what they could git tradin' skins. We et 
game an' fish an' wild berries an' hominy, an' kep' a cow. When it 
got so we could keep chickens, an' have salt pork an' corn dodgers 
an' gyarden sass an' molasses, an' have jeans pants an' cowhide 
boots to w'ar, we felt as if we was gittin' along in the world. 

Most o' the time we went bar'foot. Moccasins wasn't no putec- 
tion ag'inst the v^^et. Birch bark with hickory bark soles, strapped 
on over yarn socks, beat buckskins all holler, fur snow. Abe 'n' 
me got purty handy contrivin' things that way. An' Abe was 
right out in the woods, about as soon's he was weaned, fishin' in 
the crick, settin' traps fur rabbits an' muskrats, goin' on coon- 
hunts, follerin' up bees to find bee trees, an' drappin' corn fur his 
pappy. 

When Abe was eight years old, an' I was eighteen, we all lit 
out fur Indiany. Kaintucky was gittin' stuck up, with some folks 
rich enough to own niggers, so it didn't seem no place fur pore 
folks any more. Nancy emptied the shucks out o' the tow-linen 
ticks, an' piled everything they had wuth takin' on the backs o' 
two pack-hosses. Abe toted a gun, an' kep' it so dry on the raft 
crossin' the Ohio, that he shot a turkey hen with it the first day 
we got to Indiany. We had to chop down trees to make a road 
to the place. We all lived in pole sheds fur a year — jist shacks 
o' poles, roofed over, but left open on one side ; no floor, no fire- 
place. I don't see how the women folks lived through it. 

'Bout the time we got our cabins up, Nancy died. Abe an* me 
helped Tom make the coffin. He tuk a log left over from makin' 
the cabin', an' I helped him saw it into planks an' plane 'em. 
Me'n Abe held the planks while Tom bored holes an' put 'em 
together with pegs; Abe'd whittled. There wasn't sca'cely any 



16 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

nails in the kentry an' little iron, except in knives an' guns an" 
cookin'-pots. We laid Nancy close to the deer-run in the woods. 
Deer was the only wild critters the women wasn't afeered of. 
Abe was some'ers 'round nine year old, but he never got over the 
mizable way his mother died. 

I reckon it was think'n' o' Nancy an' things she'd said to him 
that started Abe to studyin' that next winter. He could read and 
write; Nancy an' me'd larnt him that much, an' he'd gone to 
school a spell, but it was nine mile there an' back, an' a pore 
make-out fur a school, anyhow. Nancy kep' urgin' Abe. "Abe," 
she'd say, "you larn all you kin, an' be some account," an' she'd 
tell him stories about George Washington, an' say that Abe had 
jist as good Virginny blood in him as Washington. 

Well, me'n' Abe spelled through Webster's spellin'-book twict. 
Then he tuk to writin' on the floor, the fence-rails an' the wooden 
fire-shovel, with a bit of charcoal. We got some wrappin'-paper 
an' I made ink out o' blackberry-briar root an' copperas. Got so 
I could cut pens out o' turkey-buzzard quills. 

"Denny," Abe sez to me many a time, "look at that, will you? 
'Abraham Lincoln !' That stands fur me. Don't look a 
blamed bit like me." An' he'd stand an' study it a spell. 'Peared 
to mean a heap to Abe. 

I reckon Abe'd a' got discouraged about larnin' after awhile if 
it hadn't be'n fur his stepmother. We was all nigh about tickled 
to death when Tom brung a new wife home. She'd been Sairy 
Bush, an' Tom'd be'n in love with 'er before he met Nancy, but 
her folks wouldn't let Tom have 'er, because he was shif'less. So 
she married a man named Johnston, an' he died. Then her and 
Tom got married. She had three children of 'er own an' a four- 
hoss wagon load o' goods ; feather pillers an' homespun blankets, 
an' patchwork quilts an' chists o' drawers, an' a flax-wheel, an' a 
soap-kettle, an' cookin'-pots, an' pewter dishes. Yes, Aunt Sairy 
was a woman o' property. 

Aunt Sairy sartinly did have faculty. I reckon we was all 
purty ragged an' dirty when she got there. You jist naturally 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 17 

had to be somebody when Aunt Sairy was around. Cracky, but 
Aunt Sairy was some punkins ! 

An' it wasn't only in things to make us comfortable an' well 
thought of. She didn't have no eddication herself, but she knowed 
what larnin' could do fur folks. She wasn't very long before she 
found out how Abe hankered books. She heerd him talkin' to me, 
I reckon. "Denny," he'd say, "the things I want to know is in 
books. Aly best friend is the man who'll git me one." Well, 
books wasn't as plenty as wild-cats, but I got him one by cuttin' 
cord-wood. It had a lot o' yarns in it. One I ricollect was about 
a feller that got near some darned fool rock that drawee! all the 
nails out o' his boat an' he got a duckin'. Wasn't a blamed .bit 
o' sense in that yarn. 

Sindbad the Sailor, in the "Arabian Nights"? Hey? Well, I 
reckon. Abe'd lay on his stummick by the fire, an' read out loud 
to me an' Aunt Sairy, an' we'd laugh when he did. Tom'd come 
in an' say : "See here, Abe, your mother kain't work with you 
a-botherin' her like that," but Aunt Sairy always said it didn't 
bother her none, an' she'd tell Abe to go on. 

"Abe," sez I, many a time, ^'them yarns is all lies." "Mighty 
darned good lies," he'd say, an' go on readin' an' chucklin' to hisself, 
till Tom'd kiver up the fire fur the night an' shoo him off to bed. 

I reckon Abe read that book a dozen times an' knowed all the 
yarns by heart. He didn't have nothin' much else to read, excep' 
Aunt Sairy's Bible. He cut four cords of wood onct to git one 
stingy little book. It was a life o' Washington; an' 'he'd lay over 
the Statoots o' Indiany half the night. We'd git hold o' a news- 
paper onct in a while, an' Abe larned Henry Clay's speeches by 
heart. He liked the stories in the Bible, too, an' he got a little 
book o' fables some'ers. I asked him onct after he'd gone to lawin' 
an' could make a jury laugh or cry by firin' a yarn at 'em, — "Abe," 
sez I, "whaf did you git so blamed many lies?" An' he'd always 
say, "Denny, when a story larns you a good lesson, it ain't no lie. 
God tells truth in parables. They're easier fur common folks to 
understand an' ricollect." 



18 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Seems to me now I never seen Abe after he was twelve 'at he 
didn't have a book in Iiis hand or in his pocket. He'd put a book 
inside his shirt an' till his pants' pockets with corn dodgers an' 
go off to plow or hoe. When noon come he'd set under a tree, an' 
read an' eat. An' wlicn he'd come to the house at night, he'd tilt 
a chair back by the chimbley, put his feet on the rung, an' set 
on his back-bone an' read. 

You bet he was too smart to think everything was in books. 
Sometimes, a preacher 'r a circuit-ridin' judge 'r lyyer 'r a stump- 
speakin' polytician 'r a school-teacher 'd come along. When one 
o' them rode up, Tom'd go out an' say, "Light, stranger,'" like 
it was polite to do. Then Abe'd come lopin' out on his long legs, 
throw one over the top rail, an' begin firin' questions. Tom'd tell 
him to quit, but it didn't do no good, so Tom'd have to bang him 
on the side o' the head with his hat. Abe'd go off a spell an' 
whistle like he didn't keer. 

"Pap thinks it ain't polite to ask folks so many questions," he'd 
say. "I reckon I wasn't born to be polite. There's so darned many 
things I want to know. An' how else am I goin' to git to know em ?" 

Now, maybe you think 'at us folks livin' in the backwoods didn't 
know what was goin' on in the world. Well, you'd be mighty 
mistaken about that. We kep' track o' Congress fur one thing. 
There wasn't much to talk about but polytics, an' we thrashed over 
everything in argyments at the cross-roads' stores. The bigbugs 
down East wasn't runnin' everything. Polytics had sort o' fol- 
lered us over the Gap trail, an' roosted in the clearin's. Thar was 
Henry Clay in Kaintucky an' Old Hick'ry in Tennessee at it tooth 
an' nail, an' we all tuk sides. 

When Abe was growed up he was a turrible cut-up an' joker. 
Aunt Sairy was a good Baptist an' Tom an' the Johnston children 
had jined, so the Baptist preachers always stopped at the house. 
Onct Abe tried to git a preacher to 'count fur them miracles about 
Jonah an' the whale an' the others, an' got him so worked up that 
when Abe asked him who was the father o' Zebedee's children, 
blamed if he could tell. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 19 

Abe had a powerful good memory. He'd go to church an' come 
home an' say over the sermon as good as the preacher. He'd 
often do it fur Aunt Sairy, when she couldn't go, an' she said it 
was jist as good as goin' herself. He'd say over everything from 
"beloved brethern" to "amen," without crackin' a smile, pass a 
pewter plate fur a collection, an' then we'd all jine him in singin' 
the doxology. 

Abe always had a extry pair o' jean pants an' a white shirt. 
When he was only thirteen, Aunt Sairy sez to him, "Abe, you git 
hold o' some muslin some'ers an' have some white shirts, so you 
kin go to folks' houses right." So he cut nine cords of wood an' 
got nine yards o' unbleached cotton, an' she bleached it an' shrunk 
it an' made him two shirts. He put one o' them on every Sunday. 

It was to git money to buy books that Abe tuk them v'yages 
on the flat-boats. He went fur fifty cents a day, an' a bonus. It 
was big wages, but he never went but twict. Didn't take to tradin' 
nohow. He was too lionest to make a livin' at it, an' folks tuk 
advantage of him. He was popylar, an' when he clerked the store, 
had plenty o' fellers comin' to it that liked to hear him talk, but 
most o' them thought he was plumb foolish when he got to tradin', 
so he quit that. Abe was a leader, too. He could break up rowdy 
crowds by tellin' a story that'd make 'em asliamed or make 'em 
laugh. He wouldn't take no sass, neither. If a feller was spilin' 
fur a fight an' nothin' else'd do him, Abe'd accomydate him all 
right. Gincrally, Abe could* lay him out so he wouldn't know 
nothin' about it fur a spell. In rasslin' an' ruimin' an' hoss-back 
ridin' an' log-rollin' an' rail-splittin' he could beat everybody. 
You'd lliought there was two men in the woods when he got into 
it with an ax. • 

It was John Hanks 'at got res'less fust an' lit out fur Illinois, 
an' wrote fur us all to come, an' he'd git land fur us. Tom was 
always ready to move. So he sold off his corn an' hogs an' piled 
everything into ox-wagons an' we all went, Lincolns an' Hankses 
an' Johnstons, all hanging together. Tom was always lookin' fur 
the land of Canaan. It tuk us two weeks to git thar, raftin' over 



20 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

the Wabash, cuttin' our way through the woods, fordin' rivers, 
pryin' wagons an' steers out o" sloughs with fence-rails, an' makin' 
camp. Abe cracked a joke every time he cracked a whip, an' he 
found a way out o' every tight place, while the rest o' us was 
standin' 'round scratchin' our fool heads. 

It was a purty kentry up on the Sangamon. Abe helped put up 
a cabin fur Tom, clear fifteen acres fur corn an' split walnut rails 
to fence it in. Abe was some'ers 'round twenty-one. But we had 
fever an' ager turrible, so in a year or two we moved to Coles 
County, an' we've be'n here ever sence. 

[Old man's voice trails off into silence, falls asleep; awakens 
again, and zvhispers mysteriously:^ 

Come here ; if you won't tell anybody, I'll show you something. 
[Pulls from inside pocket a heavy, old-fashioned coin-silver zvatch 
hanging to steel chain. Chasing on case worn almost smooth.] 

Abe gimme that after he went to Washington. I went down 
thar to see him, and thar he was with a big- gold watch an' chain 
hangin' all over his vest, an' I commenced to plague him about 
bein' so fine, an' he sez, "Dennis, I bet you'd carry a watch if you 
had one. You needn't be so envious." Then he went an' bought 
this fur me an' wanted me to have a gold chain, but I wouldn't, 
so he got me this good steel chain, an' I've carried it ever sence. 
IVe been offered five hundred dollars fur it, but no money can buy 
it. Thar ain't many people even gits to see it, I can tell you. 
[5^ozc'.r zvatch hack carefully into hidden pocket.] 

The next spring after I went to Washington, Abe was shot. 
I heerd of it this way : I was settin' in my shop peggin' away at a 
shoe when a man come in an' said : "Dennis, Honest Abe is dead." 
"Dead, dead. Abe dead !" I kep' sayin' to myself. "My God, it 
ain't so !" I went out to see Aunt Sairy, where she lived all alone 
after Tom died, and said, "Aunt Sairy, Abe's dead !" "Yes, I 
know." sez she. "I've be'n waitin' fur it. I knowed they'd kill 
him." An' she never asked any questions. A body'd a' thought 
the 'arth stopped whirlin' for a few days, the way everybody went 
on. It was like a black cloud that kivered the sun. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 21 

You don't remember it? Them that does has got a thing to 
think of. Why, we stopped in the streets, strong men, an' cried. 
I don't believe the sun shone ag'in for weeks after he was laid 
away at Springfield. Thar wasn't any tradin' done, scarcely. Every 
house had black on it. It was like the plague that took the first- 
born. To hit, to strike him after the war was over ! "Dennis, 
Abe's dead." I've heerd that in the night, and in dreams in the 
daytime all these years, and I kain't believe it yit. 

Some of the preachers say you won't know anybody in heaven, 
but I bet you'll know Abe Lincoln. He's thar ! I may never git 
thar, but Abe Lincoln went right straight to heaven. 



LINCOLN AS BOY AND MAN. 



OUR Lincoln, when he was a boy, 
Was very tall and slim. 
You see I'm just a little tall ; 
I wonder if I look like him. 

Our Lincoln, when he was a boy, 
Was very brave and very true. 

To-day I'm just a little brave; 
In this I'm like our Lincoln, too. 

Our Lincoln, when he was a man, 
Was loved and honored everywhere. 

I'll be the man that Lincoln Vv^as, 
To do this I must now prepare. 



A wild bear chase didst never see? 

Thou hast then lived in vain — 
The richest bump of glorious glee 

Lies desert in thy brain. 

— Abraham Lincoln. 



22 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

HAND OF LINCOLN. 



Edmund Clarence Stedman. 



LOOK on this cast, and know the hand 
That bore a nation in its hold; 
From this mute witness understand 

What Lincohi was — how large of mold. 

The man who sped the woodman's team, 
And deepest sunk the ploughman's share, 

And pushed the laden raft astream, 
Of fate before him unaware. 

This was the hand that knew to swing 

The axe — since thus would Freedom train 

Her son— and made the forest ring, 

And drove the wedge, and toiled amain. 

Firm hand, that loftier office took, 
A conscious leader's will obeyed, 

And, when men sought his word and look. 
With steadfast might the gathering sv/ayed. 

No courtier's, toying with a sword, - 
Nor minstrel's, laid across a lute; 

A chief's, uplifted to the Lord 

When all the kings of earth were mute ! 

The hand of Anak, sinewed strong, 
The fingers that on greatness clutch ; 

Yet low ! the marks their lines along 
Of one who strove and suffered much. 

For here in knotted cord and vein 
I trace the varying chart of years ; 

I know the troubled heart, the strain, 
The weight of Atlas — and the tears, 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 23 

Again I see the patient brow 

That palm erewhile was wont to press ; 

And now 'tis furrowed deep, and now 
Made smooth with hope and tenderness. 

For something of a formless grace 

This molded outline plays about, 
A pitying flame, beyond our trace, 

Breathes like a spirit, in and out. 

The love that cast an aureole 

Round one who, longer to endure, 
Called mirth to ease his ceaseless dole, 

Yet kept his nobler purpose sure. 

Lo, as I gaze, the statured man. 

Built up from yon large hand appears : 

A type that nature wills to plan 
But once in all a people's years. 

What better than this voiceless cast 

To tell of such a one as he. 
Since through its living semblance passed 

The thought that bade a race be free ! 



LINCOLN. 



George Taylor. 



ON the battlements of fame 
Raise a banner to his name. 
Blazon it against the sky 
Till the four winds, passing by, 
Shall proclaim o'er all the earth 
Slavery's death and freedom's birth ; 
And henceforth his name shall be 
Champion of Liberty ! 



24 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Raise a monumental fame 
To the martyr hero slain ; 
Wide of base, like pyramid, 
Where the dead past shall be hid. 
Found it deep, and rear it high ; 
Point its apex to the sky 
That the world henceforth may see 
Lincoln's shrine to Liberty. 

Like the mightiest of earth 
Came he with no pride of birth — 
Like Elijah came he here, 
Unannounced by sage or seer ; 
And from lowliest abode 
Came he, like the Son of God; 
. Chosen for a mighty deed 
In a nation's direst need. 

Yet it were but vain to trust 
Graven stone or brazen bust. 
Proudest monuments decay, 
Crumble, rust and pass away. 
But the oracles of time 
Shall proclaim, in every clime: 
Lincoln, martyr of the free, 
Lived and died for Liberty. 



Whenever any church shall inscribe over its altar, as its sole 
qualification for membership— the Saviour's condensed statement 
of the substance of both Law and Gospel, "Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself," that church I will join with 
all my heart, and all my soul. — Abraham Lincoln. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 25 

LINCOLN. 



Emilio Castelar, 



THE Puritans are the patriarchs of Hberty ; they opened a new 
world on the earth; they opened a new path for the human 
conscience; they created a new society. Yet, when England tried 
to subdue them and they conquered, the republic triumphed and 
slavery remained. Washington could only emancipate his slaves. 
Franklin said that the Virginians could not invoke the name of 
God, retaining slavery. Jay said that all the prayers America sent 
up to heaven for the preservation of liberty while slavery con- 
tinued, were mere blasphemies. Mason mourned over the pay- 
ment his descendants must make for this great crime of their 
fathers. Jeflferson traced the line where the black wave of slavery 
should be stayed. 

Nevertheless, slavery increased continually. I beg that you will 
pause a moment to consider the man who cleansed this terrible 
stain which obscured the stars of the American banner. I beg 
that you will pause a moment, for his immortal name has been 
invoked for the perpetuation of slavery. Ah ! the past century has 
not, the century to come will not have, a figure so grand, because 
as evil disappears so disappears heroism also. 

I have often contemplated and described his life. Born in a 
cabin of Kentucky, of parents who could hardly read ; born a new 
Moses in the solitude of the desert, where are forged all great 
and obstinate thoughts, monotonous like the desert, and, like the 
desert, sublime ; growing up among those primeval forests, which, 
with their fragrance, send a cloud of incense, and, with their mur- 
murs, a cloud of prayers to heaven; a boatman at eight years in 
the impetuous current of the Ohio, and at seventeen in the vast 
and tranquil waters of the Mississippi; later, a woodman, with 
axe and arm felling the immemorial trees, to open a way to unex- 
plored regions for his tribe of wandering workers; reading no 
other book than the Bible, the book of great sorrows and great 



26 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

hopes, dictated often by prophets to the sound of fetters th"y 
dragged through Nineveh and Babylon; a child of nature, in a 
word, by one of those miracles only comprehensible among free 
peoples, he fought for the country, and was raised by his fellow- 
citizens to the Congress at Washington, and by the nation to the 
Presidency of the Republic; and when the evil grew more virulent, 
when those States were dissolved, when the slave-holders uttered 
their war cry and the slaves their groans of despair — the wood- 
cutter, the boatman, the son of the great West, the descendant of 
Quakers, humblest of the humble before his conscience^ greatest 
of the great before history, ascends the Capitol, the greatest moral 
height of our time, and strong and serene with his conscience and 
his thought; before him a veteran army, hostile Europe behind 
him, England favoring the South, France encouraging reaction 
in Mexico, in his hands the riven country; he arms two millions 
of men, gathers a half million of horses, sends his artillery 1,200 
miles in a week, from the banks of the Potomac to the shores of 
Tennessee ; fights more than six hundred battles ; renews before 
Richmond the deeds of Alexander, of Caesar; and, after having 
emancipated 3,000,000 slaves, that nothing might be wanting, he 
dies in the very moment of victory — like Jesus, like Socrates, like 
all redeemers, at the foot of his work. His work ! Sublime 
achievement ! over which humanity shall eternally shed its tears, 
and God His benediction ! 



You may burn my body to ashes, and scatter them to the winds 
of heaven; you may drag my soul down to the regions of dark- 
ness and despair, to be tormented forever ; but you will never get 
me to support a measure which I believe to be wrong, although 
by doing so I may accomplish that which I believe to be right. — 
Abraham Lincoln, in 1S3G or 1837, zvhile member of Illinois Leg- 
islature, on being urged to vote for a measure he did not approve 
of, in order to secure votes for moving the Capital from Vandalia 
to Springfield, which measure he advocated. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 27 

LINCOLN. 



James G. Clark. 



WITH life unsullied from his youth. 
He meekly took the ruler's rod. 
And wielding- it in love and truth 

He lived the noble work of God. 
He knew no fierce unbalanced zeal. 
That spurns all human differings, 
Nor craven fear, that shuns the steel, 
That carves the way to better things. 

And in the night of blood and grief. 

When horror rested on the ark. 
His was the calm, undimmed belief 

That felt God's presence in the dark; 
Full well he knew each wandering star 

That once had decked the azure dome 
Would tremble through the clouds of War, 

And, like a prodigal, come home. 

He perished ere the angel Peace 

Had rolled War's curtain from the sky, 
But he shall live when wrong shall cease — 

The good and great can never die ; 
For though his heart lie cold and still 

We feel it beating warm and grand. 
And still his spirit's pulses thrill 

Through all the councils of the land. 

The flag of strife at length is furled. 
Rebellion drops the gory knife; 

The spring of peace glides up the world, 
Its buds are bursting into life. 



28 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Beneath the death clouds low and dim, 
The serpent shrinks in black despair; 

We lift our eyes to freedom's sun, 
And see the eagle hovering there. 

Oh, for the hosts that sleep to-day, 

Lulled by the sound of Southern waves; 
The sun that lit them in the fray 

Now warms the flowers upon their graves; 
Sweet flowers that speak like words of love 

Between the forms of friend and foe. 
Perchance their spirits meet above, 

Who crossed their battle-blades below. 

'Twas not in vain the deluge came, ' 

And systems crumbled in the gloom, 
And not in vain have sword and flame 

Robbed home and heart of life and bloom; 
The mourners' "cross, the martyrs' blood, 

Shall crown the world with holier rights, 
And slavery's storm, and slavery's flood. 

Leave Freedom's ark on loftier heights. 



LINCOLN'S DREAM. 



John Jerome Rodney. 



HEAVILY laden and spirit-spent, 
His sad heart wrapped in a cloud of gloom, 
Abraham Lincoln, worn and bent. 
Sat in the president's room. 

The midnight hour had come and gone, 

But still through the masses of war's routine 

He patiently, silently plodded on, 
A weariless, great machine. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 29 

Sherman swept there, Grant thundered here, 

Phil Sheridan, well, he was everywhere ; 
And the President heard, with the spirit's ear, 

The bursting of shells in air. 

He saw the legions of armed men 

Sowing the earth with their seed of slain, 
And the Angel of Death, through prairie and glen 

Passed, reaping his human grain. 

Brother met brother in deadly hate, 

Father and son were as foe and foe ; 
The prow of the proud old ship of state 

Steered on through a sea of woe. 

And, as he gazed, he rested his head 

On his strong, broad hands, to shut out the world, — 
When lo ! the vision of sorrow fled 

And the banner of death was furled. 

The scene was changed : by the harbor gates 
Where the Empire City holds kingly sway, 

The President saw, 'mid a nation's fetes, 
An army in proud array. 

Onward it surged through the crowded mart, 

Down through the noble Fifth Avenue, 
And Lincoln asked, with a fear at his heart : 

"Is it the gray or the blue?" 

Nearer and nearer yet they come. 

The grizzled heroes of many scars, 
With call of bugle and beat of the drum. 

Grim voices from out the wars. 

The President gazed again ; he saw, 

Outstreaming upon the welcoming wind. 
The Stars and the Stripes unstained by a flaw 

And the blue and the gray entwined. 



30 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

The scales of the flesh had fallen then 

From his closed, sad eyes, in a sweet release; 

And he saw at the head of the marching men 
The beautiful Angel of Peace ! 

As forward they marched, the blue and the gray. 
Tipping salute to their dauntless chief, 

The shadows rolled from his brow away 
And banished was all his grief. 

Soul-united, they onward marched, 
Brothers indeed, by freedom's grace, 

And over the land the rainbow arched, 
A token to all the race ! 

Ah, never was vision more heavenly fair 
To raptured saint in his utmost bliss, 

As the drawn lips muttered in burning prayer: 
"I thank you, my God, for this !" 

* * * * 

The clock struck one — with a start he rose ; 

While out of his face went the vision's gleam, 
He cried from the depths of his great heart's woes : 

"A dream? Is it all a dream?" 

Ah, no, it was more, far more, brave soul, 

A prophecy sure of things to be, 
When the music of Union should surge and roll 

Unbroken from sea to sea; 

When right should rule, whntever the cost. 
And each man's gain be the common good, 

When the petty spoil would be merged and lost 
In the passion of nationhood ! 

And out of the stateliest dwellings of light, 
From the depths of the deathless stars above, 

Your voice speaks down through the vaults of night ; 
"The triumph of life is love !" 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 31 

ANN RUTLEDGE AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



Eleanor Atkinson. 



IN the spring of 1835 Abraham Lincoln made a memorable 
journey. Only one historian has noted it, but the. tender 
memory of Ann Rutledge, the girl who awaited him at the end 
of it, must have remained with him to the day of his martyrdom. 
He was returning from his first term in the State Legislature, to 
the backwoods village that had been his home for four years. The 
last twenty miles of the journey he made on horse. A tall, un- 
gainly youth of twenty-six was this rising backwoods politician. 
He wore a suit of blue jeans, trousers stuffed in the tops of cow- 
hide boots ; hat of rabbit-fur felt, with so long a nap that it looked 
not unlike the original pelt, was pushed back from his heavy black 
hair. His wardrobe was in his saddle-bags ; his library of law 
books, most of them borrowed, in a portmanteau on his saddle- 
bow ; a hundred dollars or so of his pay as a legislator in his belt. 

Four years before he had first seen Ann Rutledge. She was in 
the crowd that had come to cheer him when he got the flatboat he 
was taking to New Orleans safely over New Salem dam. Ann 
was eighteen then, and she stood out from the villagers gathered 
on the bank by fineness of beauty and bearing. Her crown of 
hair was so pale a gold as to be almost flaxen. Hero of the day, 
the raw youth was taken up the bluff and over the ridge into the 
town of twenty log-houses and shops. He was feasted in the 
tavern of hewn logs owned by her father, James Rutledge, and 
for an hour entertained a crowd with droll stories — stories that, 
unknown to him, would be repeated before nightfall over a radius 
of twenty miles. He was beginning to discover that men liked 
to hear him talk. 

When he pushed his boat off Ann waved her kerchief. He 
looked back at her outlined against the green bluff, to fix it in a 
memory none too well furnished with such gracious pictures. In 
July he returned to New Salem as clerk in a store. 



32 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Lincoln met Ann often at the "spell-downs" with which the 
school closed the Friday afternoon sessions. When he returned 
from an Indian campaign the next year he went to the Rutledge 
tavern to board. He had risen rapidly in public esteem, had cap- 
tained a local company in the war, made a vigorous campaign for 
the Legislature, and betrayed a wide and curious knowledge of 
books and public questions. 

He and Ann were fast friends now, and for the next year and 
a half he saw her daily. At mealtimes she waited on the long 
tables. The regular boarders at the tavern were Ann's lover, 
John McNeill (who soon deserted her), Lincoln and others. The 
mother was at her wheel, the little girls had their knitting or 
patchwork, the boys their lessons. The young men played check- 
ers or talked politics. The beautiful girl sat in the firelight, knit- 
ting lace or sewing; her skilful fingers never idle, but smiling, 
listening to the talk, making a bright comment now and then, wear- 
ing, in her busiest hour, an air of leisure, with all the time in the 
world for others, as a lady should. Lincoln attended the fire, 
held Mrs. Rutledge's yarn, rocked the cradle and told his inim- 
itable stories. When he had mastered Kirkham's Grammar he 
began to teach Ann the mysteries of parsing and analysis. And 
so they sat in the peaceful evening light, looking out across the 
river with the singing name, that purls and ripples over its gravelly 
bars, and sings the story of their love forever. 

Lincoln's old ties of afifection were Ann's now, dear and famil- 
iar; and also his old griefs. She shared that tragic mystery of 
his childhood, his mother's early death. And, like all the other 
women who ever belonged to him, she divined his greatness — had 
a glimpse of the path of glory already broadening from his feet. 

They spent long afternoons studying, and Lincoln made rapid 
progress. Ann studied fitfully, often looking ofif absently across 
field and river, starting from deep reverie when he spoke to her. 
When with him, talking with him, a subtle excitement burned in 
her eye and pulsed in her cheek ; when he was gone the inner fire 
of her spirit seemed to turn to ashes. She clung desperately, vis- 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 33 

ibly, to her new love — so infinitely more precious and satisfying 
than the old. 

People remembered afterward how fragile Ann looked. She 
had spells of wild gayety, her laughter bubbling up like water 
from a spring, and she grew lovelier day by day. And there were 
times, when Lincoln was away, that she sat pale and listless and 
brooding for hours. At last, worn out with mental and mofal 
wrestlings, she turned to her father for help. Her heart must 
have beat in slow, sufifocating throbs when she crept to her father's 
arms and confessed her fears : 

What if McNeill, the false lover, should come back? 

She no longer loved him. She had never understood his be- 
havior. Like a flower she had been blighted by the frost of his 
desertion, and had revived to brief, pale life in a new sun, but 
the blight had struck to the root. Lincoln was sent for, but 
he was not found at once, for his employments kept him roving 
far afield. And so she slipped away into the delirium of brain 
fever. 

Lincoln had one anguished hour with her in a brief return to 
consciousness. What was said between them is unrecorded. Lin- 
coln stumbled out of that death-chamber like a soul gone blind and 
groping. Two days later Ann Rutledge died. 

After the funeral Lincoln was found wandering in the woods 
along the river, muttering to himself. His mind was darkened, 
stunned by the blow. He sat for hours in brooding melancholy. He 
would be found with one arm across her grave, reading his pocket 
Testament. This was the only book he opened for many months. 

All that long autumn he noticed nothing. He was entirely 
docile, pitifully like a child who waits to be told what to do. Not 
until the first storm of December was there any change. It was 
a night of wind and darkness and snow. Lincoln was restless and 
uneasy in his shadowy corner. His eyes burned with excitement. 
He went to the door at last, threw it open and looked out into the 
wild night. Turning back suddenly, his hands clenched above his 
head, he cried out in utter desolation : 



34 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

"I cannot bear to think of her out there alone, in the cold and 
darkness and storm." 

The ice of his frozen heart was unlocked at last and his reason 
saved. But there were months of bitter grief and despair that 
wore him out physically. His fits of melancholy returned, a con- 
firmed trait that he never lost. In time he went back to his old 
occupations, bearing himself simply, doing his duty as a man and 
a citizen. His intellect was keener, his humor kindlier; to his 
sympathy was added the element of compassion. And on his face, 
in his eyes and on his mouth, was fixed the expression that marks 
him as our man of sorrows, deep and irremediable. 

Until he went away to Springfield a few years later to practice 
law he disappeared at times. Every one knew that he was with 
Ann, sit-ting for hours by the grassy mound that covered her. 

He said : "My heart is buried in the grave with that dear girl." 

In 1840 New Salem was abandoned. The year after Ann Rut- 
ledge died Lincoln surveyed and planned the city of Petersburg, 
two miles farther north. Most of the pe9ple of New Salem moved 
their houses and shops over to the new town. The dam was 
washed out by floods, the mill burned. To-day, the blufif on which 
the town stood has gone back to the wild, and the site is known 
as Old Salem on the Hill. 



LINCOLN. 



W. J. Lampton. 



WHEN Lincoln died, hate died — 
The widow's and the orphans' loss 
Touched every heart and brought us all 

Close to the common cross. 
The charity that blesses us. 
And takes away our pride 
And anger, came to North and South 
When Lincoln died. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 35 

OUR MARTYRED HERO, LINCOLN. 



Marietta Hoover Dunn. 



THEY say that God no longer talks with men ; 
And when some man to fame attains, quite free 
From college lore or school's traditions, be 
He grand and pure as saint of old, 'tis then 
They cry self-made as tho' beyond their ken. 
How mind attuned to Divinity, 
Interprets well the mighty symbols He 
Doth hourly trace on life with powerful pen. 
Then not self-made, but God-wrought let us say 
Of these great souls, whose very printed deeds 
Illume our hearts by hint of God-like sway 
That thrills and lifts us far above earth's needs 
And dragging cares. The modern prophets they 
Decrying each his age's Baalist creeds. 

Our martyred hero Lincoln was of these ; 
For who can think that his serene, clean soul 
Of only worldly wisdom sought a toll — 
Caught but ambition's message from the breeze 
That whispered thro' the gloomy forest trees ? 
'Who doubts while cleaving clean the mighty bole, 
He fought with self and wrong till o'er him stole 
A quickened sense which his great work foresees. 
And having struggled up to heights where God 
Affords to stoop to men, henceforth no more 
He strove, but like a child obeyed and trod 
The higher, rocky way, heartsick, footsore. 
Afar from shade or flower-sprinkled sod, 
With prescience dim of martyrdom in store. 



Broken eggs cannot be mended. — Abraham Lincoln, written in 
1862. 



36 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN. 



Thomas Dixon, Jr. 



[From "The Clansman."] 



[All four parts, or any one part, of this recitation may be given. Also one 
person may give all four parts, or four persons may each give a part.] 



I. — Victory's Joy Silenced by the Assassin's Bullet. 

WASHINGTON was in a ferment. Vast crowds thronged 
the streets. SoldierS; soldiers, soldiers, at every turn, in 
squads, in companies, in regimental crowds, shouting cries of vic- 
tory. The display of lights was dazzling. Every building in the 
city was lighted from attic to cellar. Public buildings and churches 
vied with each other in the magnificence of their decorations and 
splendor of illuminations. The Capitol loomed a grand constella- 
tion in the heavens ! Every window in its labyrinths of marble, 
from the massive base to its crowning statue of Freedom, gleamed 
and flashed with light — more than ten thousand jets poured their 
rays through its windows, besides the innumerable lights that cir- 
cled the mighty dome within and without. 

Hotels and stores had hung every window, awning, cornice and 
swaying tree-top with lanterns. The grand avenue was bridged 
by tri-colored balloons floating and shimmering ghost-like far up 
in the dark sky. Above these, in the blacker zone toward the 
stars, the heavens were flashing sheets of chameleon flames from 
bursting rockets. 

Bands were playing. Wild war strains, floating skyward, seemed 
part of the changing scheme of light. Odor of burnt powder and 
smouldering rockets filled the warm spring air. The deep bay of 
great fort guns echoed from every hill-top commanding the city, 
while a thousand smaller guns barked and growled from every 
square and park and crossing. 

Every telegraph and newspaper office was a roaring whirlpool 
of excitement. The whole city was now a fairy dream, its dirt 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 37 

and sin, shame and crime, all wrapped in glorious light. But 
above all other impressions was the contagion of the thunder 
shouts of hosts of men surging through the streets — the human 
roar with its animal and spiritual magnetism, wild, resistless, un- 
like any other force in the universe ! Before Ford's Theater was 
a mass of throbbing humanity, and, over all, the hum of the thrill- 
ing wonder of peace and victory ! 

Women in magnificent costumes, officers in uniforms flashing 
with gold, shgw of wealth and power, perfume of flowers and 
music of violin and flutes. The theater's interior was a billow of 
red, white, and blue. The President's box was wrapped in two 
enormous silk flags with gold-fringed edges gracefully draped 
and hanging in festoons. Every eye was fixed on the door through 
which the President and Mrs. Lincoln would enter. It was the 
hour of his supreme triumph. 

What a romance his life ! The thought of it thrilled the crowd 
as they waited. A few years ago this tall, sad-faced man had 
floated down the Sangamon River into a rough Illinois town, 
ragged, penniless, friendless, alone, begging for work. Four years 
before, he had entered Washington as President of the United 
States — but he came under cover of the night with a handful of 
personal friends, amid universal contempt for his ability and the 
loud-expressed conviction of his failure from within and without 
his party. He faced a divided nation and the most awful civil 
convulsion in history. Through it all he had led the nation in 
safety, growing each day in power and fame, until to-night, amid 
the victorious shouts of millions of a Union fixed in eternal 
granite, he stood forth the idol of the people, the first great Ameri- 
can, the foremost man of the world. 

A stir at the door, and the tall figure suddenly loomed in view. 
With one impulse the crowd leaped to their feet, and shout after 
shout shook the building. The orchestra was playing "Hail to 
the Chief!" but nobody heard it. They sazv the Chief! They 
were crying their own welcome in music that came from the 
rhythmic beat of human hearts. 



38 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

As the President walked along the aisle with Mrs. Lincoln, 
cheer after cheer burst from the crowd. He turned, his face 
beaming with pleasure, and bowed as he passed. 

The answer of the crowd shook the building to its foundations, 
and the President paused. His dark face flashed with emotion 
as he looked over the sea of cheering humanity. It was a moment 
of supreme exaltation. The people had grown to know and love 
and trust him, and it was sweet. His face, lit with the responsive 
fires of emotion, was transfigured. The soul seemed to separate 
itself from its dreamy, rugged dwelling-place and flash its inspi- 
ration from the spirit world. As around this man's personality had 
gathered the agony and horror of war, so now about his head 
glowed and gleamed in imagination the splendors of victory. 

The President's party had now entered the box, and as Mr. 
Lincoln took the arm-chair nearest the audience, in full view of 
every eye in the house, again the cheers rent the air. The music 
was drowned as in the roar of the sea. Again he rose and bowed 
and smiled, his face radiant with pleasure. The soul beneath 
those deep-cut lines had long pined for the sunlight. His love 
of the theater and the humorous story were the protest of his 
heart against pain and tragedy. He stood there bowing to the 
people, the grandest, gentlest figure of the fiercest war of human 
history — a man who was always doing merciful things. Little 
sunlight had come into his life, yet to-night he felt that the sun 
of a new day in his history and the history of the people was 
already tingeing the horizon with glory. 

Back of those smiles what a story ! Many a night he had paced 
back and forth in the telegraph office of the War Department, 
read its awful news of defeat, and alone sat down and cried over 
the list of the dead. Many a black hour his soul had seen when 
the honors of earth were forgotten and his great heart throbbed 
on his sleeve. His character had grown so evenly and silently 
with the burdens he had borne, working mighty deeds, he could 
not know, nor could the crowd to whom he bowed know, how deep 
into the core of the people's life the love of him had grown. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 39 

As he looked again over the surging crowd, his tall figure 
seemed to straighten, erect and buoyant, with the new dignity of 
conscious triumphant leadership. He knew that he had come into 
his own at last, and his brain was teeming with dreams of mercy 
and healing. 

The President resumed his seat, the tumult died away, and the 
play began. 

The play ran its smooth course until John Wilkes Booth, the 
actor, was seen approaching the President's box along the balcony. 

Booth paused near the entrance to the box and looked deliber- 
ately over the great crowd, his magnetic face flushed with deep 
emotion. His fiery, inspiring eyes glittered with excitement. 
Dressed in black broadcloth of faultless fit, from the crown of 
his head to the soles of his feet, he was physically without blemish. 
A figure of perfect symmetry and proportion, his dark eyes flash- 
ing, his marble forehead crowned with curling black hair, agility 
and grace stamped on every line of his being — beyond a doubt 
he was the handsomest man in America. 



The muffled crack of a pistol in the President's box hushed the 
laughter for an instant. 

No one realized what had happened, and when the assassin 
suddenly leaped from the box, with a blood-marked knife flashing 
in his right hand, caught his foot in the flags and fell to his knees 
on the stage, many thought it a part of the program, and a boy, 
leaning over the gallery rail, giggled. Booth turned his face of 
statuesque beauty lit by eyes flashing with insane desperation and 
cried, "Sic semper tyrannis." 

A sudden, piercing scream from Mrs. Lincoln, quivering, soul- 
harrowing! Leaning far out of the box, from ashen cheeks and 
lips leaped the piteous cry of appeal, her hand pointing to the 
retreating figure : 

"The President is shot ! He has killed the President !" 



40 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

II. — Bursting of the Storm. 

Every heart stood still for one awful moment. The brain re- 
fused to record the message — and then the storm burst ! 

A wild roar of helpless fury and despair ! Men hurled them- 
selves over the footlights in vain pursuit of the assassin. Already 
the clatter of his horse's feet could be heard in the distance. A 
surgeon threw himself against the door of the box, but it had 
been barred within by the cunning hand. Women began to faint, 
and strong men trampled down the weak in mad rushes from side 
to side. 

The stage in a moment was a seething mass of crazed men, 
among them the actors and actresses in costumes and painted 
faces, their mortal terror shining through the rouge. They passed 
water up to the box, and some tried to climb up and enter it. 

The two hundred soldiers of the President's guard suddenly 
burst in, and, amid screams and groans of the weak and injured, 
stormed the house with fixed bayonets, cursing, yelling, and shout- 
ing at the top of their voices : 

"Clear out ! Clear out ! You sons of hell !" 

Within the box, the great head lay in the surgeon's arms, the 
blood slowly dripping down, and the tiny death bubbles forming 
on the kindly lips. They carried him tenderly out, and another 
group bore after him the unconscious wife. The people tore the 
seats from their fastenings and heaped them in piles to make way 
for the precious burdens. Through the open door came the roar 
of the mob without, shouting its cries : 

"The President is shot !" 

"Seward is murdered !" 

"Where is Grant?" 

"Where is Stanton?" 

"To arms ! To arms !" 

The peal of signal guns could now be heard, the roll of drums 
and the hurried tramp of soldiers' feet. They marched none too 
soon. The mob had attacked the stockade holding ten thousand 
unarmed Confederate prisoners. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 41 

If the temper of the people during the war had been convulsive, 
now it was insane — with one mad impulse and one thought — 
vengeance ! Horror, anger, terror, uncertainty, each passion 
fanned the one animal instinct into fury. 

Through this awful night, with the lights still gleaming as if 
to mock the celebration of victory, the crowds swayed in impotent 
rage through the streets, while the telegraph bore on the wings of 
lightning the awe-inspiring news. Men caught it from the wires, 
and stood in silent groups weeping, and their wrath against the 
fallen South began to rise as the moaning of the sea under a 
coming storm. 

At dawn, black clouds hung threatening on the eastern hori- 
zon. As the sun rose, tingeing them for a moment with scarlet 
and purple glory, Abraham Lincoln breathed his last. 

Stanton, the iron-hearted, stood by his bedside and through 
blinding tears exclaimed : 

"Now he belongs to the ages !" 



III. — The Nation's Grief and Rage. 

A few moments after the President died on Saturday morning, 
the rain began to pour in torrents. Flags that flew from a thou- 
sand gilt-tipped peaks in celebration of victory drooped to half- 
mast and hung weeping around their stafifs. Litter of burnt fire- 
works, limp and crumbling, strewed the streets, and the tri-colored 
lanterns and balloons, hanging pathetically from their wires, began 
to fall to pieces. 

Never in all the history of man had such a conjunction of 
events befallen a nation. From the heights of heaven's rejoicing 
to be suddenly hurled to the depths of hell in piteous, helpless 
grief ! Noon to midnight without a moment between ! A pall of 
voiceless horror spread its shadows over the land. Nothing short 
of an earthquake or the sound of the archangel's trumpet could 
have produced the sense of helpless consternation, the black and 
speechless despair. People read their papers in tears. The morn- 
ing meal was untouched. By no other single feat could Death 



42 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

have carried such pecuHar horror to every home. Around this 
giant figure, the heart-strings of the people had been uncon- 
sciously knit. Even his political enemies had come to love him. 

Above all, in just this moment he was the incarnation of the 
Triumphant Union on the altar of whose life every house had laid 
the offering of its first-born. The tragedy was stupefying — it 
was unthinkable — it was the mockery of Fate ! 

Men walked the streets dazed with blind grief. Every note of 
music and rejoicing became a dirge. All business ceased. Every 
wheel in every mill stopped. The roar of the great city was 
hushed, and Greed for a moment forgot his cunning. The army 
only moved with swifter spring, tightening its mighty grip on the 
throat of the bleeding, prostrate South. 

As the day wore on its gloomy hours, and men began to find 
speech, they spoke to each other at first in low tones of Fate, of 
Life, of Death, of Immortality, of God — and then as grief found 
words the measureless rage of baffled strength grew slowly to 
madness. On every breeze from the North came deep-muttered 
curses. 

Easter Sunday dawned after the storm, clear and beautiful in 
a flood of glorious sunshine. Churches were thronged as never 
in their history. All had been decorated for the double celebra- 
tion of Easter and the triumph of the Union. Preachers had pre- 
pared sermons pitched in the highest anthem key of victory — 
victory over Death and the grave of Calvary, and victory for the 
nation opening a future of boundless glory. The churches were 
labyrinths of flowers, and around every pulpit and from every 
arch hung the red, white and blue flags of the Republic. 

And now, as if to mock this gorgeous pageant. Death had in 
the night flung a black mantle over every flag and wound a 
strangling web of crape round every Easter flower. 

When the preachers faced the silent crowds before them, look- 
ing into the faces of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and lovers 
whose dear ones had been slain in battle or died in prison-pens, 
the tide of grief and rage rose and swept them from their feet ! 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 43 

The Easter sermon was laid aside. Fifty thousand Christian min- 
isters, stunned and crazed by insane passion, standing before the 
altars of God, hurled into the broken hearts before them the wild- 
est cries of vengeance — cries incoherent, chaotic, unreasoning, 
blind in their awful fury ! 



IV. — The Funeral Procession. 

The funeral procession started westward. It passed in grandeur 
through the great cities on its journey of one thousand six hun- 
dred miles to the tomb. By day, by night, by dawn, by sunlight, 
by twilight, and lit by solemn torches, millions of silent men and 
women looked on his dead face. Around the person of this tall, 
lonely man, rugged, yet full of somber dignity and spiritual beauty, 
the thoughts, hopes, dreams, and ideals of the people had gath- 
ered in four years of agony and death, until they had come to feel 
their own hearts beat in his breast and their own life throb in his 
life. The assassin's bullet had crashed into their own brains, and 
torn their souls and bodies asunder. 

The masses were swept from their moorings, and reason de- 
stroyed. All historic perspective was lost. Our first assassina- 
tion, there was no precedent for comparison. It had been over 
two hundred years in the world's history since the last murder of 
a great ruler, when William of Orange fell. 

On the day set for the public funeral, twenty million people 
bowed at the same hour. 

When the procession reached New York, the streets were lined 
with a million people. Not a sound could be heard save the tramp 
of soldiers' feet and the muffled cry of the dirge. On every foot 
of earth stood a human being, the silence of the desert and of 
Death ! The nation's living heroes rode in that procession, and 
passed without a sign from the people. 

Four years ago he drove down Broadway as President-elect, 
unnoticed and with soldiers in disguise attending him lest the mob 
should stone him. 

To-day, at the mention of his name in the churches, the preach- 



44 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

ers" voices in prayer wavered and broke into silence, while strong 
men among the crowd burst into sobs. Flags flew at half-mast 
from their steeples, and their bells tolled in grief. Every house 
that flew but yesterday its banner of victory was shrouded in 
mourning. The flags and pennants of a thousand ships in the 
harbor drooped at half-mast, and from every stafi^ in the city 
streamed across the sky the black mists of crape like strange 
meteors in the troubled heavens. For three days every theater, 
school, court, bank, shop, and mill was closed. 

The procession passed to Springfield through miles of bowed 
heads dumb with grief. The plough stopped in the furrow, the 
smith dropped his hammer, the carpenter his plane, the merchant 
closed his door, the clink of coin ceased, and over all hung brood- 
ing silence with low-muttered curses, fierce and incoherent. 

No man who walked the earth ever passed to his tomb through 
such a storm of human tears. 



LINCOLN'S BURIAL. 



James Thompson McKay. 



AND so they buried Lincoln ? Strange and vain ! 
Has any creature thought of Lincoln hid 
In any vault, 'neath any coffin-lid, 
In all the years since that wild Spring of pain? 

'Tis false, — he never in the grave hath lain. 

You could not bury him although you slid 

Upon his clay the Cheops Pyramid, 

Or heaped it with the Rocky Mountain chain. 

They slew themselves ; they but set Lincoln free. 

In all the earth his great heart beats as strong, 
Shall beat while pulses throb to chivalry 

And burn with hate of tyranny and wrong. 

Whoever v.'ill may find him, anywhere 

Save in tlie tomb. Not there, — he is not there ! 



LIXCOLN CELEBRATIONS 45 

NEWS AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 



S. H. M. Byers. 



ALL the night the President sat, 
Waiting the telegraph's chck, cHck, click; 
Waiting the news that should tell him that 

Grant had crossed at the little creek ; 
Waiting to hear that before the light 

Sherman's troops were be3'ond the bridge ; 
That over the river, from left to right, 
All was ready to charge the Ridge. 

Chickamauga was lost ; our dead 

Lay in heaps on the sodden plain ; 
What if the rebel, with lifted head, 

Strike, as he struck, to our hearts agai:i ' 
Over the North, as a pall of night. 

Sorrow hung, and the summons came : 
"Win a victory — win us a fight ; 

Wipe awa^^ from our flag the shame." 

All the night, in his room alone, 

All the night till the dawn was by. 
And over the broad Potomac shone 

Red the sun in the eastern sky — 
W^atched the President, grave and sad. 

Came no tick on the mystic line ; 
What if the daring rebel had 

Tapped the wire and read the sign- 
Sign of battle, or sign of gloom? 

Hark ! the lightning's messenger ! 
No ! Silence only is in the room — 

Silence only, and breath of prayer. 



46 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Listen ! Yes, 'tis the tick, lick, tick — 
"Clear the hues"' are the first words sent, 

"Up to Washington, men, be quick ! 
Grant will talk with the President." 

Click, click, click, went the instrument: 

"Sherman's army has crossed the stream,"— 
Nearer the table the grave face leant. 

Lips half parted and eyes agleam — 
"Hooker's soldiers but yesterday 

Stormed up Lookout in mist and rain; 
They are holding the dangerous way. 

They will fight at our right again. 

"On the left is our storming line, 

Sherman's legions are bending on." 
Click, click, click: "On the Ridge there shine 

Rows of cannon since early dawn — 
Rows of cannon and men in gray, 

Shining columns of burnished steel: 
They are holding our men at bay, 

Tliey are waiting the cannon's peal. 

"Look ! our soldiers have climbed the Ridge ; 

Sherman's gallants have stormed the line, 
Forty cannon are at the bridge — 

Brave these soldiers of his and mine !" 
Click, click, click: "The center moves, 

Thomas, Sheridan, all abreast. 
Bayonets fixed — in troops and droves 

Charging clear to the mountain's crest. 

"Battle's thunder from left to right, 
Belching cannon, and musket's crash." 

Click, click, click : "Lo ! on every height 
Flames of sulphur and lightnings flash." 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 47 

Closer still to the breathing wire 

Bends the face of the President — 
Does he hear it, the battle's fire, 

Half-way over a continent? 

Does he hear it, the bugle's call, 

Sounding "Forward!" the whole long line? 
Sees he blue-coat and gray-coat fall? 

Hears he cannon and splintering pine? 
Click, click, click: "And a thousand men 

Climb the works on the highest hill- 
Wait ! they are driving us back again ! 

No ! our banner is waving still ! 

"See ! we're storming the whole long line, 

Waiting never a leader's cry ; 
Over the rocks and splintering pine — 

We will capture the Ridge or die ! 
Hand to hand on the very crest"— 

Click, click, click— "with the naked steel; 
Only a moment, and, east to west, 

Flags are falling and columns reel. 

"Shouts and cheers on the Ridge are heard— 

Shouts and cheers till the skies are rent ; 
Back to the river, they've got the word — 

Won is the battle, our President!" 
Quick as thought, and the answer flies— 

"Bless our soldiers ! God bless each one !" 
And up to the loyal Northern skies 

Hymns ascend for the battle won. 

Kind, good President— brave, strong men, 
Sounds of battle you'll hear no more- 
Calls of bugle to charge again. 

Crash of muskets or cannon's roar. 



48 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

But, while Mountain and Ridge shall stand. 
They are one with your deathless fame; 

Men shall tell to a rescued land 

How the news to the White House came. 



OUR PILOT. 

Voice. 

WHO guided our noble ship of State 
Through crimson seas of strife? 
Who saved it from the rocks of fate, 
And waves that sought its life? 

Who stood so nobly at the helm 
Through voyage four years long? 

When dangers threatened to o'erwhelm, 
Who kept his courage strong? 

And when our gallant ship of State 

Into safe harbor sailed, 
What name in all the land was great. 

With joyous honors hailed? 



All. 



We know the name. We know it well. 
With gratitude our hearts now swell, 
As Abraham Lincoln's name we tell. 



I do the very best I know how — the very best I can ; and I 
mean to keep on doing so until the end. If the end brings me 
out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. 
If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was 
right would make no difference. — Abraham Lincoln. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 49 

LINCOLN. 



H. C. Deming. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S work was finished when, unher- 
alded and almost unattended, leading his little son by the 
hand, he walked into the streets of humiliated Richmond. 

If, on that auspicious morn, the crowning benediction had de- 
scended on him, he might well have wished to die. What more 
could he ask for on earth? Assailed by the strongest conspiracy 
that ever threatened a nation's life, his triumph over it was com- 
plete and overwhelming, conquering liberty for a class and national 
existence for a people. Was not this honor enough for one man ? 

He had survived ridicule ; he had outlived detraction and abuse ; 
he had secured the commendation of the world for purity of 
purpose, constancy in disaster, clemency in triumph, and the praise 
even of his armed foes for gentleness and mercy. In times more 
troubled he had administered government with more ability than 
Carnot, and war with more success than Napoleon the Third. He 
had paled the glory of Hastings in preserving an empire, and had 
earned comparison with Hampden for self-command and rectitude 
of intention, while as an emancipator of a race he stood alone 
without a rival and without a parallel. 

If fame had approached him with the laurels of a conqueror, 
if power had offered him a scepter, and ambition a crown, he would 
have scorned them all. He asked from men, he asked from God, 
but one culminating boon^peace, peace on the bloody waters and 
the blighted shore. 

Alas ! Such a consummation was denied. There are mysteri- 
ous conferences of guilt-laden men ; a conspiracy is formed, and 
on the night of the fourteenth of April, 1865, its purpose is accom- 
plished. The nation stands aghast; the crime of the Dark Ages 
has entered our history ; the soul of Abraham Lincoln is trans- 
ferred from earth to heaven. 

Crime always fails in its purpose; assassination is everlastingly 



50 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

a blunder. Csesar is assassinated ; and imperial sway emerges a 
full-armed despotism from his tomb. William the Silent is assas- 
sinated ; but the republic of the Netherlands breaks the double 
fetters of superstition and tyranny, and expands into a great and 
flourishing commonwealth. Lincoln is assassinated ; but he lives 
to-day in his imperishable example, in his recorded words of wis- 
dom, in his great maxims of liberty and enfranchisement. 

The good never die ; to them belongs a double immortality ; 
they perish not on earth, and they exist forever in heaven. The 
great primeval law-giver, entombed for forty centuries in that 
unknown grave in an obscure vale of Moab, to-day legislates in 
your halls of state. Against the Philip of to-day, the dead Demos- 
thenes thunders; the dead Leonidas guards the gates of every 
empire which wrestles for its sovereignty ; the dead Napoleon still 
sways France from that silent tomb in the Invalides ; and the dead 
Abraham Lincoln will beckon the wavering battle line of liberty 
till the last generation of man. 



LINCOLN. 



Henry Ward Beecher. 



[Extract from a sermon delivered in 1865, after Lincoln's death.] 



HE who now sleeps has, by this event, been clothed with new 
influence. Dead, he speaks to men who now willingly hear 
what before they refused to listen to. Now his simple and weighty 
words will be gathered like those of Washington, and your chil- 
dren, and your children's children, shall be taught to ponder the 
simplicity and deep wisdom of utterances which, in their time, 
passed, in the party heat, as idle words. Men will receive a new 
impulse of patriotism for his sake, and will guard with zeal the 
whole country which he loved so well. I swear you, on the altar 
of his memory, to be more faithful to the country for which he 
has perished. Men will, as they follow his hearse, swear a new 
hatred to that slavery against which he warred, and which, in van- 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 51 

quishing him, has made him a martyr and a conqueror. I swear 
you, by the memory of this martyr, to hate slavery with an un- 
appeasable hatred. Men will admire and imitate his unmoved 
firmness, his inflexible conscience for the right; yet his gentleness, 
as tender as a woman's, his moderation of spirit, which not all 
the heat of party could inflame, nor all the jars and disturbances 
of this country shake out of its place. I swear you to an emula- 
tion of his justice, his moderation and his mercy. 

You I can comfort ; but how can I speak to that twilight million 
to whom his name was as the name of an angel of God? There 
will be wailing in places which no minister shall be able to reach. 
When, in hovel and in cot, in wood and in wilderness, in the field 
throughout the South, the dusky children, who looked upon him 
as that Moses whom God sent before them to lead them out of 
the land of bondage, learn that he has fallen, who shall comfort 
them? O thou Shepherd of Israel, that didst comfort Thy people 
of old, to Thy care we commit the helpless, the long wronged, and 
grieved ! 

And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier 
than when alive. The nation rises up at every stage of the coming. 
Cities and States are his pall-bearers, and the cannon beats the 
hours with solemn progression. Dead, dead, dead, he yet speak- 
eth! Is Washington dead? Is Hampden dead? Is David dead? 
Is any man dead that ever was fit to live? Disenthralled of flesh, 
and risen to the unobstructed sphere where passion never comes, 
he begins his illimitable work. His life now is grafted upon the 
Infinite, and will be fruitful as no earthly life can be. Pass on, 
thou that hast overcome ! Your sorrows, O people, are his peace ! 
Your bells, and bands, and mufifled drums sound triumph in his 
ear. Wail and weep here ; God piakes it echo joy and triumph 
there. Pass on, thou victor ! 



It seems as if the question whether my first name is "Abraham" 
or "Abrani" will never be settled. It is "Abraham." — Abraham 
Lincoln, ivrittcn in 1860. 



52 IVERXERS READINGS NO. 45 

LINCOLN'S LAST DREAM. 



Hezekiah Bl'TTERWORTH. 



APRIL flowers were in the hollows; in the air were April belh, 
/Vnd the wings oi purple swallows rested on the battle-shells ; 
From the war's long scene of horror now the nation found release; 
All the day the old war bugles blew the blessed notes of peace. 
'Thwart the twilight's damask curtains 

Fell the night upon the land, 
Like God's smile of benediction 
Shadowed faintly by His hand. 
In the twilight, in the dusk-light, in the starlight everywhere, 
Banners waved like gardened flowers in the palpitating air. 
In Art's temple there were greetings, gentle hurrying of feet. 
And triumphant strains of music rose amid the numbers sweet. 
Soldiers gathered, heroes gathered, women beautiful were there. 
Will he come, the land's Beloved, there to rest an hour from care? 
Will he come who for the people 

Long the cross of pain has borne — 
Prayed in silence, wept in silence, 
Held the hand of God alone? 
Will he share the hour of triumph, now his mighty work is done ? 
Here receive the people's plaudits, now the victory is won? 

O'er thy dimpled waves, Potomac, softly now the moonbeams 

creep ; 
O'er far Arlington's green meadows, where the brave forever sleep. 
'Tis Good Friday ; bells are tolling, bells of chapels beat the air 
On thy quiet shores. Potomac; Arlington, serene and fair. 
And he comes, the nation's hero. 

From the White House, worn with care, 
Hears the name of "^'Lincoln !" ringing 
In the thronged streets everywhere j 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 53 

Hears the bells — what memories bringing to his long uplifted 

heart ! 
Hears the plaudits of the people as he gains the Hall of x\rt. 

Throbs the air with thrilling music, gaily onward sweeps the play; 
But he little heeds the laughter, for his thoughts are far away; 
And he whispers faintly, sadly : "Oft a Blessed Form I see, 
Walking calmly "mid the people on the shores of Galilee. 

Oft I've wished Plis steps to follow, 
Gently listen, wife of mine ! 

When the cares of State are over, 
I will go to Palestine. 
And the paths the Blessed followed I will walk from sea to sea, 
Follow Him who healed the people on the shores of Galilee." 

Hung the flag triumphant o'er him, and his eyes with tears were 

dim, 
Though a thousand eyes before him lifted oft their smiles to him. 
Forms of statesmen, forms of heroes, women beautiful were there, 
But it was another vision that had calmed his brow of care. 
Tabor glowed in light before him, 

Carmel in the evening sun ; 
Faith's strong armies grandly marching 
Through the vale of Esdralon : 
Bethany's palm-shaded gardens, where the Lord the sisters met. 
And the Paschal moon arising o'er the brow of Olivet. 

Now the breath of light applauses rose the templed arches through. 
Stirred the folds of silken banners, mingled red and white and blue ; 
But the Dreamer seemed to heed not; rose the past his eye before : 
Armies guarding the Potomac, flashing through the Shenanloah; 

Gathering armies, darkening navies, 
Heroes marching forth to die ; 

Chickamauga, Chattanooga, 
And the Battle of the Sky; 
Silent prayers to free the bondmen in the ordeal of fire, 
And God's angel's sword uplifted to fulfil his heart's desire. 



54 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Thought he of the streets of Richmond on the late triumphant day, 
When the swords of vanquished leaders at his feet surrendered lay, 
When amid the sweet bells ringing all the sable multitudes 
Shouted forth the name of "Lincoln !" like a rushing of the floods ; 

Thought of all his heart had suffered, 
All his struggles and renown, — 

Dreaming not that just above him 
Lifted was the martyr's crown ; 
Seeing not the dark form stealing through the music-haunted air; 
Knowing not that 'mid the triumph the betrayer's feet were there. 

April morning; flags are blowing. 'Thwart each flag a sable bar. 
Dead, the leader of the people ; dead, the world's great commoner. 
Bells on the Potomac tolling ; tolling by the Sangamon ; 
Tolling from the broad Atlantic to the Ocean of the sun. 

Friend and foe clasp hands in silence, 
Listen to the low prayers said. 

Hear the people's benedictions, 
Hear the nations praise the dead. 
Lovely land of Palestina ! he thy shores will never see. 
But, his dream fulfilled, he follows Him who walked in Galilee. 



LINCOLN'S DEPARTURE FROM SPRINGFIELD AS TOLD 
BY BILLY BROWN. 



Ida Tarbell. 



I CAN see him now just how he looked, standin' there on the 
end of his car. He'd been shakin' hands with the crowd in the 
depot, laughin' an' talkin', just like himself, but when he got 
onto that car he seemed suddint to be all changed. You never 
seen a face so sad in all the world. 

I tell you he had woe in his heart that minute — woe. He knew 
he was leavin' us for good; nuthin' else could explain the way 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 55 

he looked an' what he said. He knew he never was comin' back 
ahve. 

It was rainin' hard, but when we saw him standin' fliere in bare 
head, his great big" eyes lookin' at us so lovin" an' mournful, every 
man of us took ofif his hat, just as if he'd been in church. 

You never heard him make a speech, of course? You missed a 
lot. Curious voice. You could hear it away ofif — kind of shrill, 
but went right to your heart — an' that night it sounded sadder 
than anything I ever heard. 

You know I always hear it to this day, nights when the wind 
howls around the house. 

He stood a minute lookin' at us an' then began to talk. There 
ain't a man in this tov/n that heard him that ever forgot what he 
said, but I don't believe there's a man that ever said it over out 
loud — he couldn't without cryin'. He just talked to us that time 
out of his heart. 

Somehow we felt all of a suddint how we loved him an' how 
he loved us. We hadn't taken any stock in all that talk about his 
bein' killed, but when he said he was goin' away not knowin' 
where or whether ever he would return I just got cold all over. 

"Ever see him again?" Yes, oncet down in Washington, sum- 
mer of '64. I had a brother in Washington, clerk in a depart- 
ment — awful set up 'cause he had an office an' when I got down 
there I told him I'd come to visit Mr. Lincoln. 

He says : "William, be you a fool ? Folks don't visit the Presi- 
dent of the United States without an invitation, an' he's too busy 
to see anybody but the very biggest people. Why, he don't even 
see me?" he says.' 

"Isaac," I says, "I don't wonder Mr. Lincoln don't see you. 
But it's different with me. Him and me is friends." 

That night I footed it up to the Soldiers' Home, where Mr. 

Lincoln was livin' then, right among the sick soldiers in their tents. 

There was lots of people settin' around waitin' fer him, but 

there wasn't anybody there I knowed, and I was feelin' a little 

funny when a door opened an' out came little John Nicolay. He 



56' WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

came from down this way, so I just went up an' says : 

"How'd you do, John; where's Mr. Lincoln?" Well, John 
didn't seem over glad to see me. 

"Have you an appointment with Mr. Lincoln?" he says. 

"No, sir," I says ; "I ain't, an' it ain't necessary. Mebbe it's 
all right an' fittin' for them as wants post-offices to have app'int- 
ments, but I reckon Mr. Lincoln's old friends don't need 'em, so 
you jist tell him Billy Brown's here an' see what he says." 

Well, he kind o' flushed up an' set his lips together, but he went 
ofif. In about two minutes the door popped open an' out came 
Mr. Lincoln, his face all lit up. He laid holt of me an' just shook 
my hands fit to kill. 

"Billy," he says, "I am glad to see you. Come right in. You're 
goin' to stay to supper with Mary an' me." 

Didn't I know it? Think bein' president would change him? — 
not a mite. 

Well, we had supper an' then talked some more, an' about 10 
o'clock I started down town. Wanted me to stay all night, but 
I says to myself, "Billy, don't you overdo it. You've cheered 
him up, an' you better light out." So I said : 

"Nope, Mr. Lincoln, can't. Goin' back to Springfield to-mor- 
row. Ma don't like to have me away an' my boy ain't no great 
shakes keepin' store." 

"Billy," he says, "what did you come down here for?" 

"Come to see you, Mr. Lincoln." 

"But you ain't asked me for anything, Billy. What is it ? Out 
with it. Want a post-office?" he said, gigglin', for he knowed I 
didn't. 

"No, Mr. Lincoln, jest wanted to see you — felt kinder lone- 
some — been so long since I'd seen you, an' I was afraid I'd forgit 
some of them yarns if I didn't unload soon." 

Well, sir, you ought to seen his face as he looked at me. 

"Billy Brown," he says, slow like, "do you mean to tell me 
you came all the way from Springfield, Illinois, just to have a 
visit with me, that you don't want an office for anybody, nor a 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 5/- 

pardon for anybody, that you ain't got no complaint in youi" 
pockets or any advice up your sleeve?" 

"Yes, sir," I says, "that's about it." 

Well, sir, he just grabbed my hand and shook it nearly off, 
an' the tears just poured down his face. 



CROWN 'WITH EVERGREENS FAIR. 



[May be given by several children carrying wreaths of evergreens. On stage 
Is portrait or bust of Lincoln. At "I would crown with evergreens," each child 
places wreath on portrait or bust.] 



O LINCOLN ! great, and wise, and good, 
Our gratitude to thee is due; 
A man beloved and understood, 
So just, so loyal, and so true ! 

Struggling, striving, pushing onward, 

Ever doing what seemed best; 
Guarding, guiding, planning union. 

Peace, and love, and rest. 

So now our Lincoln I would crown 

With evergreens so fair; 
And may his name forever live 

Our love for him declare. 

l^All {with school) repeat] 

And ever anew our hearts shall love 
His glorious deeds, his life, his name; 

And ever anew our voices sing 
In loyal praise our hero's fame. 



Don't forget the old maxim that "one drop of honey catcl. 
more flies than a gallon of gall." — Abraham Lincoln. 



58 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

MARSE LINKUM'S MISTEK. 



Mary Fairfax Childs. 



SAY, Judy, does you see now whar de Freedom part comes in, 
Ou' freedom dat de sojer-boys dey fight so hard ter win? 
I neber knowed what slab'ry wuz, "til jes heah sence de war, 
But now Fs fetter'd wid his chains, mo' strong dan I kin b'ar. 

Dey presses in de body, an' dey wuks into de mind, 

Till comfo't an' de peace o' Gawd I kin no longeh find; 

Caze co'se you ain't gwine 'joy de Lawd — dat fac' He sho mus' 

know — 
When hungah 'n col' come st^lkin' in — 'out knockin' at de do'. 

Great King ! ef I could jes furgit dem days afo' de war, 

When Marstah seed we hed enough — yaas, honey, an' ter spar' — 

An' Miss Furginia, she so kind a-tendin' us — Lawd, me ! 

I wush Marse Linkum warn't so quick a-settin' ole fo'ks free. 

He mought 'a' knowed, wid white folks sence, he done it all too 

soon — 
He sprung hit lak a huntin'-dog's a-pouncin' on a coon — 
He mought 'a' know'd de ole fo'ks 'ould 'a' drapt erlong de way, 
Lak corn-stalks in de furrows on a cold an' windy day. 

Dis Freedom's good enough, o' co'se, fur Ceely, Dan an' Dick, 
Caze dem young ones wuz lakly, an' could larn de freedom trick ; 
But to ole folks wid stififen'd j'ints, an' dimmin' in de eye, 
'Twuz lak you tu'n a ole blin' horse out on de fiel' to die. 

At Mastah's home 'twuz sho' 'nough free — de clo'es, de light, 

de wood, 
De corn-pone, an' de 'possum-fat — Lawd, Judy ! wa'n't it good ? 
No lan'-lawd come dar, granny chile, a-pushin' fur de pay — 
Dat po'-trash man cyarn't know dat dis heah 's Dan'l Webstah 

Clay. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS ' 59 

De ole plantation coachman, what drobe his fo'-in-han', 

An' sot ez high, an' chavv'd ez large, ez any in de Ian'; 

I gwine 'form him mah credik's good — ole Mastah done sed so — 

An' wid dis sassin' 'bout mah rint, he bettah hed go slow. 

I knows down Souf we's in de fiel' at risin' ob de sun, 
But den ole Mastah med it good, fur eb'ry stroke we done : 
An' when de night-time come aroun', my ! how de banjos rung, 
An' how dem niggahs pat an' dance, an' how dey laugh an' sung. 

You mind de time ole cross-eyed Pete, an' bandy-legged Joe, 
One night done dance de hoe-down, 'til dey fa'rly shuk de flo', 
An' de white folks from de house come down — ole Mastah wid 

de res' — 
An' say he'd gib a fiddle to de one dat done de bes'? 

De worl's cl'ar done furgot us sence Marse an' Miss is gone, 
An' lef us settin heah to wait de blowin' ob de hawn ; 
Great Mastah ! please don' you furgit to put in writin' down, 
Dat ive's to tread de golden streets, an' w'ar de golden crown — 

Caze sho we's 'arned a "title cl'ar to mansions in de skies," 
Whar Jesus at de frone o' grace will wipe ou' weepin' eyes, 
Fur we is done de bes' we could — de white fo'ks cyarn't do mo' — 
So tell de Angel standin' dar, right by de heb'nly do', 

A-pickin' out de ole white sheep, from dem what's dyed in sin. 
To keep a good look-out fur us, an' sholy let us in; 
He cyarn't mek no mistek, good Lawd ! caze I kin tell you why : 
'Mah Judy, she's lame in de back; an' me, blind in one eye.' 
An' Mammy, when we gits in dar, an' heahs 'em bust an' sing 
De praises ob de Bressed Lamb, an' glory to de King, 
I b'liebs I'll hunt Marse Linkum up, an' jes' will let him know 
Dat we did hab de closes' shabe a-gittin' froo dat do' ; ' 

Caze, dough he done a righteous ac', I reckons, on de whole, 
De freedom dat he gib, we finds, wa'n't helpin' to de soul. 
An' so I gwine to say to him : "Marse Linkum — 'scuzin' me — 
You sho did mek one big mistek a-settin ole fo'ks free!" 



60 ^ERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

THE PARDON. 



"nr^WAS in the war-time's early days, 

X When eyes looked forth with anxious gaze, 
A young lad had been doomed to die, 
And would'st thou know the reason why? 

He had been placed as sentinel. 
And at his post asleep he fell, 
And for that closing of his eyes. 
Before him dreamless slumber lies. 

The President read the sentence through, 
And murmured : "The act I cannot do. 
Brought up on a farm, at work late kept. 
Poor boy ! No wonder that he slept." 

And o'er the paper he drew his pen, 
And signed his pardon there and then. 
Great-hearted man ! Shall I unfold 
What later on the sequel tojd? 

At Fredericksburg, among the slain, 
A lad beyond all mortal pain. 
Was lying by himself apart, 
A picture next his youthful heart. 

'Twas Lincoln's picture that he wore, 
And just beneath these words it bore — - 
"God bless Abraham Lincoln." Thus he showed 
The debt of love to him he owed. 



I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelm- 
ing conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom 
and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day. — Abraham 
Lincoln. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 61 

THE MOTHER OF LINCOLN. 



General John C. Black. 



[From oration at dedication of monument over grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln.] 

AND now a great throng is here who have come to testify of 
their affection for her, and who have singled out this one 
woman for this unusual honor. Well might her simple spirit, if 
recalled to this scene, bid us leave her slumber unbroken and her 
ashes again to the urn of oblivion. Well may all inquire why, 
after many years, this stately concourse? Why the recall of these 
aged companions? Why this muster of these heroic veterans? 
Why these honored women? Why should the great state itself 
turn back through the loftiest century of time to stand in the 
persons of its governor and officials in splendid ceremony about a 
wilderness grave ? And with solemn voice we answer : "That 
justice may be done; that wrong may be righted; that truth 
eternal as the reign of God may be established. We come, O 
woman and mother, here to build our memorial to thee. Thine 
earthly garments were damp with the dews of the wilderness ; thy 
feet were torn by the thorns of thy pathway ; thine eyes dimmed 
by the tears of thy travail ; but in thine arms thou didst bear, and 
at thy bosom thou didst nourish the babe of thy sacrifices, the 
child of thy toil, him the master of his time, the beloved of 
centuries to be, the servant of justice and the liberator of the 
oppressed ! And so, for thine own sake and for thy child's, we 
are here to do this fitting honor." 

I have often wondered whether this pair, Thomas and Nancy, 
fled from the fate of slavery, with conscious knowledge of its 
baleful power, or whether their flight was simply from conditions 
not understood, but not the less intolerable. But be that as it 
may, "He arose and took the young child and his mother and 
departed hither." Here in Indiana they rested ; here she gave 
that child, in the simple cabin now gone to ruin, his first lessons ; 
here in his father's presence she sowed the seed of truth and 



62 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

justice afterward to mature a mighty harvest. Here she stood 
and pointed upward, Httle comprehending, if at all, the future 
that awaited. We cannot say she did not see anything of that 
future. What mother that bends above an American babe was 
ever wholly blind to the possibilities? Duller, indeed, than any 
mother must she have been not to have known that her cabin- 
born child was not equal in advantages with the child of the 
plantation ; less than a mother, had she not rebelled at the dis- 
tinction and sought to obviate it, but in any event here she came, 
and, having placed his feet on freedom's soil, she yielded her 
blameless life back to the grave. 

And this is all her story — a short and simple annal of the 
poor. But the years passed on, the nation was in the throes of 
a great war for its prolonged existence ; at its head was the child 
of this woman, and over against him the child of the plantation. 
The struggle was to decide, as the chieftain himself said, whether 
a nation dedicated to liberty could live, or whether a government 
of the people, for the people and by the people should perish from 
the earth. Was that leader equal to the task? Could he save a 
nation for righteousness and liberty? Whence was his training, 
and who had laid the moral foundations on which he should stand 
in this awful struggle? We see that son bowed by the weight of 
cares such as rarely have fallen upon human shoulders. He 
wielded the power and enjoyed the affection of a great people. 
Armies moved at his command and navies obeyed his orders. 
Disasters recurring filled the earth with loudest clamors against 
him. Calumny belied him and hate spied upon his every act ; but 
ever louder and louder sounded the bugles of advancing victory, 
and in the midst of this vast strife, from the stress of public trials 
and the pain of personal woes, we hear the worn and weary 
President, matchless orator, great civic leader, emancipator, patriot 
— he whose lips spoke rebellion down and liberty to the stars — 
we hear him declare, "All that I am or may be I owe to my 
sainted mother." High testimony this and most exalted witness. 

And at last the great war drew to its triumphal close. Its 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 63 

mightiest actor, too, approached his end. Behold him surrounded 
by his friends and advisers; he is telHng" of all that he hopes for 
the land of his love. On him so speaking falls the melancholy 
which he has inherited from his mother, and he tells of the dream 
which, often occurring, has always been a harbinger of some great 
grave event. Before victory or before disaster had that dream come 
to him, "A shadowy ship bears me rapidly toward a shadowy shore." 
I sometimes fancy that on the dark barje of the President's 
dream there waited for him, standing 'midst the dense throng of 
his dead guards and statesmen who had sailed before, and who 
had returned to meet him, this woman, this wilderness queen, this 
tallest and stateliest of them all, this woman whom to-day we 
honor. Well, it may have been ; the world beyond has its own 
mysteries; so to the living they will forever continue, and so we 
leave them — one here in Indiana, two in Illinois ; in the grasp and 
bond of the Union their lives preserved we leave them — son and 
father and mother in equal honor and in eternal peace. 



TO THE SPIRIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



Richard Watson Gilder. 

[Reunion at Gettysburg, twenty-five years after the battle.] 

SHADE of our greatest, O look down to-day ! 
Hear the long, dread mid-summer battle roar, 
And brother in brother plunged the accursed sword ;• 
Here foe meets foe once m.ore in proud array 
Yet not as once to harry and to slay, 
But to strike hands, and with sublime accord 
Weep tears heroic for the souls that soared 
Quick from earth's carnage to the starry way. 
Each fought for what he deemed the people's good. 
And proved his bravery by his offered life. 
And sealed his honor with his out-poured blood; 
But the Eternal did direct the strife, 
And on this sacred field one patriot host, 
Now calls thee father, — dear, majestic ghost! 



64 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

LINCOLN. 



Ross L. Finney. 



O LINCOLN ! Sent of God, Columbia crowns 
Thy brow with laurel wreaths ; fair Liberty 
Engraves thy name in Hving lig"ht upon 
The page of history ; while love doth find 
Thee lodgment in the hearts of all mankind. 

Thou pilot brave ! Whose steadfast form stood firm, 
Whose hand did guide our Ship of State across 
The stormy sea of war, while thunders rolled, 
And livid lightnings flashed athwart the sky, 
Though treacherous maelstroms howled with fiercer rage 
Than Scylla's dogs; thou, with thine eye fixed on 
Some light that glimmered on the shore, didst keep 
Our constant course across the angry deep. 

And thus we learn to love thy careworn smile, 
To trust thy wisdom's oracle, to feel 
Thy faith prophetic on our fear distill, 
And own the might of thy magnetic will. 

At length a calm came o'er the awful sea, 
The gale subsided, and the clouds rolled back, 
The haven broke upon our raptured view. 
But lo ! the furious demons of the sea 
And of the storm, concentered all in one 
Infernal genius even in our midst — 
The murderous traitor beacons Death, and points 
His finger at thy faithful breast! O hour 
Of horror ! moment of supreme despair ! 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 65 

Thy smile by pallid lids was veiled, thy soul 
Had fled, thy dauntless heart had ceased to beat, 
Thy mighty form lay fallen at our feet. 

The nation wept. Both friend and foe did pour 
Their tears sincerely forth to water thy 
Beloved memory ; and for thy grave 
The solemn world their fragrant honors gave. 

Let ages roll, let seers and sages be 
Forgotten ; let their granite monuments 
All crumble into dust, and forests grow 
Upon the hilltops where they stand ; e'en let 
The continents subside and billows roll 
Above its sacred battlefields, while on 
The emptied bed of ocean let there rise 
And flourish nations new : let roll the tides 
Of ceaseless change upon the shores of the 
Eternal plan ; let dawn that distant, far 
Off day toward which the marching centuries move, 
When each to every man shall brother be, 
When perfect justice, liberty, and right 
Shall rule indeed ; yet even then shalt thou. 
Immortal Lincoln ! be revered by all 
Who gratefully review the bloody way 
O'er which the common man hath slowly trod, 
From slavery, up the eternal hills of God. 



I have just told the folks in Springfield [Illinois] on this anni- 
versary of the birth of him whose name, mightiest in the cause of 
civil liberty, still mightiest in the cause of moral reformation, we 
mention in solemn awe, in naked, deathless splendor, that the one 
victory we can ever call complete will be that one which proclaims 
that there is not one slave or one drunkard on the face of God's 
green earth. — Abraham Lincoln, February 22, 18Jt§. 



66 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

SHEPHERD OF THE PEOPLE. 



Phillips Brooks. 



SO LET him lie here in our midst to-day, and let our people 
go and bend with solemn thoughtfulness and look upon his 
face and read the lessons of his burial. As he paused here on his 
journey from his Western home and told us what, by the help of 
God, he meant to do, so let him pause on his way back to his 
Western grave and tell us, with a silence more eloquent than 
words, how bravely, how truly, by the strength of God, he did it. 
God brought him up as he brought David up from the sheepfolds 
to feed Jacob and his people, and Israel his inheritance. He came 
up in earnestness and faith, and he goes back in triumph. As he 
pauses here to-day, and from his cold lips bids us bear witness 
how he has met the duty that was laid on him, what can we say 
out of our full hearts but this — "He fed them with a faithful and 
true heart, and ruled them prudently with all his power." 

"The Shepherd of the People !" that old name that the best 
rulers ever craved. What ruler ever won it like this dead Presi- 
dent of ours? He fed us faithfully and truly. He fed us with 
counsel when we were in doubt, with inspiration when we some- 
times faltered, with caution when we would be rash, with calm, 
clear, trustfulness through many an hour when our hearts were 
dark. He fed hungry souls over all the country with sympathy 
and consolation. He spread before the whole land feasts of great 
duty and devotion and patriotism, on which the land grew strong. 
He fed us with solemn, solid truths. He taught us the sacredness 
of government, the wickedness of treason. He made our souls 
glad and vigorous with the love of liberty that was in his soul. 
He showed us how to love truth and yet be charitable; how to 
hate wrong and all oppression, and yet not treasure one personal 
injury or insult. He fed all his people from the highest to the 
lowest, from the most privileged down to the most enslaved. Best 
of all, he fed us with a reverent and genuine religion. He spread 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 67 

before us the love and the fear of God just in that shape in which 
we need them most ; and of his faithful service of a higher Master, 
who of us has not taken and eaten and grown strong? "He fed 
them with a faithful and true heart." Yes, till the last; for at 
the last, behold him standing with hand reached out to feed the 
South with mercy and the North with charity, and the whole land 
with peace, when the Lord, who had sent him, called him, and his 
work was done. 



LINCOLN. 

Charles E. Hughes. 



[Speech while Governor of New York State at the 22nii Annual Lincoln Dinner 
of the New York Republican Club.] 



WE see in Lincoln patience, the reasoning faculty, humanity, 
the democratic sentiment, patient consideration, all com- 
bined, and we may 'well learn from him the lesson which at every 
hour of our history we should well study. There may be those 
who look with uncertainty upon our future, who feel oppressed, 
with the problems of the day. I am not one of them. 

"Why," said Lincoln, "should we not have patient confidence in 
the ultimate justice of the American people?" 

Why not, indeed? Who are the American people? They are 
the most intelligent people organized into any civil society on the 
face of this broad earth. They have abundant opportunities for 
education. They are keen and alert. They are those whom you 
meet in every walk of life. Their common sense is of general 
recognition among all the people of the world. Why not have 
patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the American people ? 

If we could only feel as Lincoln felt and proceed as Lincoln 
did, with remorseless logic, to the consideration of the demands 
of every exigency, there can be no question but what each problem 
will be solved, and that every decade of American history will 



68 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

witness a further advance, and that the prosperity of the future 
will far transcend anything that we have realized in the past. 

The American people will advance step by step, surely and in- 
evitably, to a realization of their ideals, and nothing whatever will 
stand in the way in the course of time of that equality of oppor- 
tunity and of equal rights before the law which the Declaration 
of Independence announced, and which the Constitution was in- 
tended to conserve. I believe most thoroughly in the judgment of 
the American people. 

Every man in this country worthy of his citizenship intends to 
have the fullest advantage and opportunity for the exercise of his 
individual power, with recognition of the equal right of every 
other man to the exercise of his individual power, so that all may 
be prosperous and all may succeed, and all that we need is to put 
a stop to those things which are inimical to our common advan- 
tage, and insist upon our common rights and reason together in 
regard to what is fair and what is just, and accomplish things 
with full ascertainment of the facts because they are right and 
because the people in their deliberate judgment demand that they 
should be accomplished. 

We are all fortunate that we had a Lincoln. What would the 
country be if we were all a lot of sordid money-grabbers, with 
nothing to point to but the particular sharpness of A, or the special 
success in some petty manipulation of B ? What a grand thing 
it is that we have the inheritance of the memory of a man who 
had everything that we could aspire to in intellectual attainments, 
who was endowed with a strength of moral purpose, who was 
perfectly sincere in the interest of the people, and who gave his 
life-work and eventually his life itself in order that our Union 
with its opportunities might survive. 



I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist 
in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites 
to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms, by no means 
excluding females. — Abraham Lincoln, written in 1836. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS . 6^ 

THE MAN WE MOURN TO-DAY. 



Richard Henry Stoddard. 



N 



O Caesar he whom we lament 
A Man without a precedent, 
Sent, it would seem, to do 
His work, and perish, too. 



Not by the weary cares of State, 

The endless tasks, which will not wait, 

Which, often done, in vain. 

Must yet be done again : 

Not in the dark, wild tide of war, 
Which rose so high and rolled so far, 

Sweeping from sea to sea 

In awful anarchy: 

But he, the man we mourn to-day. 
No tyrant was : so mild a sway 

In one such weight who bore 

Was never known before. 

Cool should he be, of balanced powers, 
The ruler of a race like ours. 

Impatient, headstrong, wild, 

The Man to guide the Child. 

And this he was, who most unfit 
(So hard the sense of God to hit). 

Did seem to fill his place; 

With such a homely face. 

Such rustic manners, speech uncouth, 
(That somehow blundered out the truth), 

Untried, untrained to bear 

The more than kingly care. 



70 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Ah ! And his genius put to scorn 
The proudest in the purple born. 
Whose wisdom never grew 
To what, untaught, he knew, 

The People, of whom he was one : 
No gentleman, like Washington, 

(Whose bones, methinks, make room, 
To have him in their tomb !) " 

A laboring man, with horny hands. 

Who swung the axe, who tilled his lands. 

Who shrank from nothing new, 

But did as poor men do. 

One of the People ! Born to be 

Their curious epitome ; 
To share yet rise above 
Their shifting hate and love. 

O honest face, which all men knew ! 
O tender heart, but known to few ! 

O wonder of the age, 

Cut ofif by tragic rage ! 

Peace ! Let the long procession come, 
For hark, the mournful, mufifled drum. 

The trumpet's wail afar, 

And see, the awful car ! 

Peace ! Let the sad procession go, 
While cannon boom and bells toll slow. 

And go, thou sacred car, 

Bearing our woe afar ! 

Go, grandly borne, with such a train 
As greatest kings might die to gain. 
The just, the wise, the brave, 
Attend thee to the grave. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 71 

And you, the soldiers of our wars, 
Bronzed veterans, grim with noble scars, 

Salute him once again, 

Your late commander — slain ! 

So sweetly, sadly, sternly goes 
The Fallen to his last repose. 

Beneath no mighty dome, 

But in his modest home; 

The churchyard where his children rest. 
The quiet spot that suits him best. 

There shall his grave be made, 

And there his bones be laid. 

And there his countrymen shall come, 
With memory proud, with pity dumb. 

And strangers far and near, 

For many and many a year. 

For many and many an age. 
While History on her ample page 

The virtues shall enroll 

Of that Paternal Soul. 



The difference between the Republican and the Democratic 
parties on the leading issues of the contest is that the former con- 
sider slavery a moral, social and political wrong, while the latter 
do not consider it either a moral, a social or a political wrong. 
Every measure of the Democratic party of late years has corre- 
sponded with this notion of utter indifference whether slavery or 
freedom shall outrun in the race of empire across to the Pacific. 
The Republican party, on the contrary, hold that this government 
was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and that slaivery 
is an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, 
and to the State. — Abraham Lincoln, September 13, 1858.. 



72 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

WHEN LINCOLN DIED. 



J. A. Edgerton. 



WHEN Lincoln died, a universal grief 
Went round the earth. Men loved him in that hour. 
The North her leader lost; the South her friend; 
The nation lost its savior; and the slave 
Lost his deliverer; the most of all. 
Oh, there was sorrow 'mid the humble poor, 
When Lincoln died. 

When Lincoln died, a great soul passed from earth,- 
In him were strength and gentleness so mixed 
That each upheld the other. He was firm 
And yet was kind ; as tender as a child. 
And yet as iron-willed as Hercules. 
His power was almost limitless, and yet 
His mercy was boundless as his power. 
And he was jovial, laughter loving still. 
His heart was ever torn with sufifering. 
There was divine compassion in the man; 
A God-like love and pity for his race. 
The world saw the full measure of that love 
When Lincoln died. 

When Lincoln died a type was lost to men. 
The earth has had her conquerors and kings, 
And many of the common great. Through all 
She only had one Lincoln. There are none 
Like him in all the annals of the past. 
He was the growth of our new soil ; a child 
Of our new time; he was an American; 
Was of the people, from the lowest rank; 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 73 

And yet he scaled with ease the highest height. 
Mankind one of its few immortals lost, 
When Lincoln died. 

When Lincoln died, it seemed a providence ; 
For he appeared as one sent for a work, 
Whom, when that work was done, God summoned home. 
He led a splendid fight for Liberty; 
And when the shackles fell, the land was saved, 
He laid his armor by and sought his rest, 
A glory sent from heaven covered him 
When Lincoln died. 



TO LINCOLN'S BUST IN BRONZE. 



R'lCHARD Watson Gilder. 



THIS bronze doth keep the very form and mold 
Of our great martyr's face. Yes, this is he; 
That brow all wisdom, all benignity ; 

That human humorous mouth ; those cheeks that hold 

Like some harsh landscape all the summer's gold ; 
That spirit fit for sorrow, as the sea 
For storms to beat on ; the lone agony 

Those silent, patient lips too well foretold. 

Yes, this is he who ruled a world of men 

As might some prophet of the elder day, — 
Brooding above the tempest and the fray 

With deep-eyed thought and more than mortal ken. 

A power was his beyond the touch of art 

Or armed strength — his pure and mighty heart. 



Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the eleva- 
tion of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them. — 
Abraham Lincoln, zvritten in 1859. 



74 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

THOMAS AND NANCY LINCOLN. 



Edna Dean Proctor. 



( ( TTIT us for humblest service," prayed 

X This kindly, reverent man. 
Content to hold a lowly place 

In God's eternal plan : 
Content, by prairie, wood and stream, 

The common lot to share, 
Or help a neighbor in bis need 

Some grievous weight to bear — 
Then trustfully resigned the life 

That had fulfilled his prayer. 

And she in Indiana's grave 

This many a year who lies — 
Mother and wife whose yearning soul 

Looked sadly from her eyes — 
Who, dying, called her children close 

As the last shadow fell. 
And bade them ever worship God 

And love each other well — 
Then to her forest grave was borne, 

The wind her funeral knell ! 

So drear — so lone — who could have dreamed 

The boy her bed beside. 
Forth from that cabin-door would walk 

Among earth's glorified? 
But, lo ! his name from sea to sea 

Gives patriotism wings ; 
Upon his brow a crown is set 

Grander than any king's ; 
And to these fameless graves his fame 

Tender remembrance brings. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 75 

Ah ! still the humble God doth choose 

The mighty to confound : 
Still them that fear and follow him 

His angel campeth round; 
And while by Indiana's woods 

Ohio, murmuring, flows, 
And Illinois' green levels shine 

In sunset's parting glows- 
While Lincoln's name is dear, our hearts 

Will hallow their repose. 



STATESMAN, RULER, HERO, MARTYR. 



Susie M. Best. 

» li ^ ID the names that fate has written 
iVi On the deathless scroll of fame, 
We behold the name of Lincoln 

Shining like a living flame. 
'Mid the deeds the \vorld remembers, 
(Deeds by dauntless heroes done,) 
We behold the deeds of Lincoln, 

Blazing like a brilliant sun. 
'Mid the lives whose light illumines 
History's dark and dreadful page. 
We behold the life of Lincoln, 

Lighting up an awful age. 
When the storm of peril threatened 

His loved land to overwhelm, 
Safe the ship of State he guided. 

With his hand upon the helm. 
Statesman, ruler, hero, martyr — 
Fitting names for him, I say, 
Wherefore, let us all as brothers, • 
I/)ve his memory to-day. 



76. WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

DEFENSE OF TOM GRAYSON. 



Edward Eggleston. 



[From "The Graysons".] 



THERE was a painful pause after the judge had taken his 
seat and ordered the prisoner brought in. It was hke a 
wait before a funeral service, but rendered ten times more dis- 
tressing by suspense. The judge's quill-pen could be heard scratch- 
ing on the paper as he noted points for his charge to the jury. 
The law had the aspect of a relentless boa-constrictor, slowly wind- 
ing itself about Tom. The deadly creature had now to make but 
one more coil, and then, in its cruel and deliberate fashion, it 
would proceed to tighten its twists until the poor boy should be 
done to death. 

Why had Lincoln not done anything to help Tom? Any other 
hwyer with a desperate case would have had a stack of law- 
books in front of him, as a sort of dam against the flood. But 
Lincoln had neither law-books nor so much as a scrap of paper. 

The prosecuting attorney reserved his chief witness to the last. 
He would add one more stone to the pyramid of proof before 
he capped it all with certainty. Lincoln waived cross-examination. 
The prosecuting attorney began to feel sure of his own case ; he 
had come to his last witness and his great stroke. "^'Call David 
Sovine," he said. 

Dave appeared embarrassed. He had deteriorated in appear- 
ance lately. His patent-leather shoes were bright as ever, his 
trousers were trimly held down by straps, his hair was well kept 
in place with oil, but there was a nervousness in his expression 
that gave him the air of a man who had been drinking to excess. 

"Do you know the prisoner?" asked the prosecutor. 

"Yes, well enough," but Dave did not look toward Tom. 

"You've played cards with him^ haven't you?" 

"Yes." 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 77 

"Tell his Honor and the jury when and where you played with 

him." 

"We played one night last July, in the store." 
"Who proposed to Tom to play with you ?" 
"George Lockwood. He hollered up the stove-pipe for Tom 
to come down an' take a game or two with me." 
"What did you win that night from Tom ?" 
"Thirteen dollars, an' his hat, an' his coat, an' his boots, an' 
his han'he'chi'f, an' his knife." 

"Who, if anybody, lent him the money to get back his things 
which you had won?" 
"George Lockwood." 

Here the counsel paused, laid down a memorandum, and looked 
about until he found another : then he resumed his questions. 

"Tell the jury whether you were at the Timber Creek camp- 
meeting on the 9th of August." 
"Yes ; I was." 

"What did you see there? Tell about the shooting." 
Dave related his parting from Lockwood, Tom's appearance on 
the scene, Tom's threatening speech, Lockwood's entreaty that 
Tom would not shoot him, and Tonr s shooting. In making these 
statements Dave looked at the stairway in the corner of the court- 
room with an air of entire indifference, as though the case were 
rather a dull affair to him. 

"How far away from Lockwood were you when the shooting 
took place ?" 

"Twenty foot or more." 

"What did Tom shoot w^ith?" 

"A pistol." 

"What kind of a pistol?" 

"One of the ole-fashioned sort— flint-lock, weth a ruther long 

barrel." 

The prosecuting lawyer beckoned to the sheriff, who handed 

him Tom's pistol. 

"Tell the jury whether this looks like the pistol." 



78 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

" 'Twas just such a one as that. I can't say it was that, but it 
was hung to the stock Hke that, an' about as long in the barrel." 

"What did Grayson do when he had shot George, and what did 
you do?" 

"Tom run off as fast as his feet could carry him, an' I went up 
towards George, who'd fell over. He was dead agi'nst I could get 
there." 

After bringing out some further details, the prosecutor turned 
with an air of confidence and said : 

"You can have the witness, Mr. Lincoln." 

There was a brief pause during which the jurymen changed 
their positions on the hard seats. In making these changes they 
looked at one another, and it was clear that their minds were well 
made up. Lincoln at length rose slowly and stood awhile in silence, 
regarding Sovine, who seemed excited, and his eyes sought to 
escape the lawyer's gaze. 

"You said you were with Lockwood just before the shooting?" 

"Yes" [alert and aiiszveriug promptly]. 

"Were you not pretty close to him when he was shot?" 

"No, I wasn't" [snspicioiisly]. 

"Are you sure you were as much as ten feet away?" 

"I was more than twenty" [hnskily]. 

"What had you and George Lockwood been doing together?" 

"We'd been — talking" [alai'mcd at this line of questioning]. 

"Oh, you had?" 

"Yes." 

"In a friendly way?"' 

"Yes, tubby shore ; we never had any fuss." 

"You parted from him as a friend ?" 

"Yes, of course." 

"By the rime Tom came up you'd got — how far away? Be 
careful now." 

"I've told you twice. More than twenty feet." 

"You might have been mistaken about its being Tom, then?" 

"No, I wasn't." 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 79 

"Did you know it was Tom before he fired?" 

"Tubby shore, I did." 

"What time of night was it?" 

"Long toivards 10, I sh'd think." 

"It might have been 1 1 ?" 

"No, "t wusn't later 'n about 10" [doggedly]. 

"Nor before nine?" 

"No 't wus nigh onto ten, I said" [zvith irritation, speaking 
louder than before^. 

"How far away were you from the meeting-place?" 

" 'Twixt a half a mile an' a mile." 

"Not over a mile?" 

"No, scarcely a mile." 

"But don't you think it might have been a little less than a half 
a mile?" 

"No, it's nigh onto a mile. I didn't measure it, but it's a mighty 
big three-quarters." 

The witness answered combatively, and in this mood made a 
better impression than on his direct examination. The prosecut- 
ing attorney looked relieved. 

"You didn't have any candle in your hand, did you, at any time 
during the evening?" 

"No ! What should we have a candle for ?" 

"Did either George Lockwood or Tom have a candle?" 

"No, of course not! What'd they have candles for?" 

"Where were the lights on the camp-ground ?" 

''Close by the preachers' tent." 

"More than three-quarters of a mile away from the place where 
the murder took place?" 

"Anyway as much as three-quarters [beginning to zvish he 
could modify his previous statement of the distance]. 

"How far away were you from Lockwood when the murder 
took place?" 

"Twenty feet." 

"You said "^or more' awhile ago." 



80 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

"Well, 't wiisn't no less, pVaps" [^shoiving signs of zvorrying]. 
"You don't think I measured it, do yeh?" 

"There were no lights nearer than three-quarters of a mile ?" 

"No" l^cold perspiration heading on his face]. 

"You don't mean to say that the platform torches up by the 
preachers' tent gave any light three-quarters of a mile away and 
in the woods?'' 

"No, of course not." 

"How could you see Tom and know that it was he that fired, 
when the only light was nearly a mile away, and inside a circle 
of tents?" 

"Saw by moonlight" [snappishly]. 

"What sort of trees were on the ground?" 

"Beech." 

"Beech-leaves are pretty thick in August?" 

"Ye-es, ruther" [gasped the witness]. 

"And yet light enough from the moon came through these thick 
beech-trees to let you know Tom Grayson?" 

"Yes." 

"And you could see him shoot?" 

"Yes." 

"And you full twenty feet away?" 

"Well, about that; nearly twenty feet, anyhow." 

"And you pretend to say to this court that by the moonlight 
that you got through the beech-trees in August you could even 
see that it was a pistol that Tom had?" 

"Ye-es." 

"And you could see what kind of a pistol it was?" [This was 
said with a little laugh very exaspn'ating to the witness.] 

"Yes, I could" [ivith dogged resolution not to he faced down]. 

"And just how the barrel was hung to the stock?" [There was 
a positive sneer in Lincoln's voice now.] 

"Yes" [spoken freely]. 

"And you twenty feet or more away?" 

"I've got awful good eyes, an' I know what I see" [whiningly]. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 81 

Lincoln paused and looked at Sovine, whose extreme distress 
was apparent. Lincoln, after regarding his uneasy victim awhile, 
thrust his hand into the tail-pocket of his blue coat, and drew forth 
a small pamphlet. He turned the leaves with extreme delibera- 
tion, while the court-room was silent. The members of the bar 
were intently watching the struggle between counsel and witness. 
The judge stopped scratching his quill, and lowered his spectacles 
that he might study the distressed face of the tormented witness. 

Lincoln appeared to be the only perfectly deliberate person in 
the room. He seemed disposed to protract the situation as long 
as possible. He held his victim on the rack and let him sufifer. 
He would turn a leaf or two in his pamphlet and then look up at 
the demoralized witness, as though to fathom the depth of his 
torture and to measure the result. At last he fixed his thumb 
firmly on a page and turned his eyes to the judge. 

"Now, your Honor, this witness" [zvith a half-contemptuous 
gesture of his awkzvard left hand toward Sovine^ "has sworn over 
and over that he recognized the accused as the person who shot 
George Lockwood, near the Union camp-meeting on the night 
of the 9th of last August, and that he, the witness, was standing 
twenty feet or more away while the scene of the shooting was 
nearly a mile from the torches inside the circle of tents. So 
remarkably sharp are this witness's eyes that he even saw what 
kind of a pistol the prisoner held in his hands, and how the barrel 
was hung to the stock, and he is able to identify this pistol of 
Grayson's as precisely like and probably the identical weapon." 
[^Here Lincoln paused and scrutinized S ovine. ^^ "All these de- 
tails he saw and observed in the brief space of time preceding the 
fatal shot — saw and observed them at 10 o'clock at night, by 
means of moonlight shining through the trees — beech-trees in full 
leaf. This is a pretty hard story. How much light does even a 
full moon shed in beech-woods like that on the Union camp- 
ground? Not enough to see your way by, as everybody knows 
who has had to stumble through such woods." [Lincoln paused 
here that his words might produce due effect on judge and jury. 



82 WERNER'S READINGS NO. U 

Meanwhile he turned the leaves of his pamphlet. Then he began 
once more:] "But, may it please the court, before proceeding 
with the witness, I should like to have the jury look at the almanac 
which I hold in my hand. They will see that on the night of 
the 9th of last August, when this extraordinary witness" — [with 
a sneer at Dave, who had sunk dozvn on a chair in exhaustion^ — 
"saw the shape of a pistol at twenty feet away at 10 o'clock, by 
mponlight, the moon did not rise until half-past one in the morn- 
ing." 

Lincoln walked slowly toward the jury-box and gave the 
almanac to the foreman. Countrymen in that day were used to 
consulting almanacs, and one group after another satisfied them- 
selves that on the night of the 9th, that is, on the morning of 
the 10th, the moon came up at half-past one o'clock. When all 
had examined the page, Lincoln took back his little book. 

"Will you let me look at it?" asked the judge. 

"Certainly, your Honor"; and the little witness was handed 
up to the judge, who looked it all over, outside and in, examining 
even the title-page to make sure that the book was genuine and 
belonged to the current year. Then he took note on a slip of 
paper of the moon's rising on the night of August 9 and 10, and 
handed back the almanac to Lincoln. The audience in the court- 
room was utterly silent and expectant. '' " 

"Now, may it please the court," Lincoln went on, "I wish at 
this point to make a motion. I think the court will not regard it 
as out of order, as the case is very exceptional^ — a matter of life 
or death. This witness has solemnly sworn to a story that has 
manifestly not one word of truth in it. It is one unbroken false- 
hood. In order to take away the life of an innocent man he has 
invented this atrocious web of lies, to the falsity of which the 
very heavens above bear witness, as this almanac shows you. 
Now, why does David Sovine go to all this trouble to perjure 
himself? Why does he wish to swear away the life of that young 
man who never did him any harm?" [Lincoln stood still a moment 
and looked at the witness, zvho had grown ghastly pale; then he 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 83 

went on, very sloivly:] "Because that witness shot and killed 
George Lockwood himself. I move, your Honor, that David 
Sovine be arrested at once for murder." 

"This is at least a case of extraordinary perjury," said the 
judge. "Sheriff, arrest David Sovine !" 

The sheriff went up to the now stunned Sovine. "I arrest you," 
he said. 

The day-and-night fear of detection in which Dave had lived 
all these weeks had wrecked his self-control at last. 

"God" [he murmured, dropping Jiis head zmth a sort of shud- 
der], " 'taint any use keepin' it back no longer. I — didn't mean to 
shoot him, an' I wouldn't 'a' come here ag'inst Tom if I could 'a' 
got away." 

The result of Lincoln's masterful stroke was now for the first 
time realized. The whole court-roomful of people burst into 
cheers, laughter, cries, and waving of hats and handkerchiefs. 

"May it please the court,"' said Lincoln, who had remained stand- 
ing, waiting for the tempest to subside, "I move, your Honor, that 
the jury be instructed to render a verdict of 'Not guilty'." 

The judge proceeded to give the jury instructions to render the 
desired verdict. As soon as the jtiry had gone through the for- 
mality of a verdict, the sheriff came and opened the door of the 
witness-box and let Tom out. 

"Abr'am," said Tom's mother, "d' yeh know, I kind uv lost 
confidence in you when you sot there so long without doin' 
anything." Then, after a moment o.f pause : "Abr'am, I'm thinkin' 
I'd ort to deed you my farm. You've 'arned it, my son ; the good 
Lord Almighty knows you have." 

"I'll never take one cent, Aunt Marthy — not a single red cent" ; 
and Lincoln grasped Tom's hand, saying: 

"Tom will be a help in your old days. Aunt Marthy, and then 
I'll be paid a hundred times. You see, it'll tickle me to think that 
when you talk about this you'll say : 'That's the same Abe Lincoln 
that I used to knit stockings for when he was a poor little fellow 
with his bare toes sticking out of ragged shoes in the snow'." 



84 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

A HERO NEW. 



James Russell Lowell. 



[From ode recited at Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865.] 



FORGIVE me if from the present things I turn 
To speak what in my heart will beat and burn, 
And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn. 
Nature, they say, doth dote, 
And cannot make a man 
Save on some worn-out plan 
Repeating us by rote : 
For him her Old World moulds aside she threw, 
And, choosing sweet clay from the breast 
Of the unexhausted West, 
With stuff untainted shaped a hero new, 
Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true. 

How beautiful to see 
Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed. 
Who loved his charge but never loved to lead; 
One whose meek flock the people joyed to be, 
Not lured by any cheat of birth. 
But by his clear-grained human worth. 
And brave old wisdom of sincerity. 

They knew that outward grace is dust; 
They could not choose but trust 
In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill, 

And supple-tempered will 
That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust. 
His was no lonely mountain peak of mind. 
Thrusting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars, 
A sea-mark now, now lost in vapors blind; 
Broad prairie rather, genial, level-lined, 
Fruitful and friendly for all humankind, 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 85 

Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars. 

Nothing of Europe here, 
Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still, 
Ere any names of serf and peer 
Could nature's equal scheme deface 
And thwart her genial will; 
Here was a type of the true elder race, 
And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face. 

I praise him not; it were too late; 
And some innative weakness there must be 
In him who condescends to victory 
Such as the Present gives, and cannot wait. 
Safe in himself as in fate. 
So always firmly he : 
He knew to bide his time. 
And can his fame abide 
Still patient in his simple faith sublime. 

Till the wise years decide. 
Great captains, with their guns and drums, 

Disturb our judgment for the hour. 
But at last silence comes ; 

These all are gone, and, standing like a tower. 
Our children shall behold his fame, 

The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man. 
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame. 
New birth of our new soil, the first American. 



I cannot but know that without a name, perhaps without a rea- 
son why I should have a name, there has fallen upon me such a 
task as did not rest even upon the Father of his Country ; and, so 
feeling, I cannot but turn and look for that support without which 
it will be impossible to perform that great task. I turn, then, 
and look to the great American people, and to that God who has 
never forsaken i\\tm.— Abraham Lincoln, February, 1861. 



86 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

LINCOLN, THE IMMORTAL. 



Henry Watterson. 



FROM Caesar to Bismarck and Gladstone the world has had its 
soldiers and its statesmen, who rose to eminence and power 
step by step through a series of geometrical progression, as it 
were, each promotion following in regular order, the whole 
obedient to well-established and well-understood laws of cause and 
effect. These were not what we call "men of destiny." They 
were men of the time. They were men whose career had a begin- 
ning, a middle and an end, rounding ofif a life with a history, 
full, it may be, of interesting and exciting events, but compre- 
hensible and comprehensive, simple, clear, complete. 

The inspired men are fewer. Whence their emanation, where 
and how they got their power, and by what rule they lived, moved, 
and had their being, we cannot see. There is no explication to 
these lives. They rose from shadow and went in mist. We see 
them, feel them, but we know them not. They arrived, God's 
word upon their lips ; they did their office. God's m.antle upon 
them ; and they passed away, God's holy light between the world 
and them, leaving behind a m.emory half mortal and half myth. 
From first to last they were distinctly the creating of some special 
providence, baffling the wit of man to fathom, defeating the 
machinations of the world, the flesh and the devil until their work 
was done, and passed from the scene as mysteriously as they ha 1 
come upon it ; Luther, Shakespeare, Burns, even Bonaparte, th " 
archangel of war, havoc and ruin ; not to go back into the dar': 
ages for examples of the hand of God stretched out to raise up. 
to protect, and to cast down. 

Tried by this standard and observed in an historic spirit, wher-^ 
shall we find an illustration more impressive than in AbrahaTn 
Lincoln, whose life, career and death might be chanted by a Greek 
chorus as at once the prelude and the epilogue of the most imperial 
theme of modern times? 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS S7 

Born as low as the son of God in a hovel; reared in penury, 
squalor, with no gleam of light, nor fair surroundings ; a young 
manhood vexed by weird dreams and visions, bordering, at times, 
on madness ; singularly awkward, ungainly, even among the 
uncouth about him ; grotesque in his aspects and ways, it was 
reserved for this strange being, late in life, without name or fame 
or ordinary preparation, to be snatched from obscurity, raised to 
supreme command, and entrusted with the destiny of a nation. 

The great leaders of his party were made to stand aside ; the 
most experienced and accomplished men of the day, men like 
Seward and Chase and Sumner, statesmen famous and trained, 
were sent to the rear ; while this comparatively unknown and fan- 
tastic figure was brought by unseen hands to the front and given 
the reins of power. It is entirely immaterial whether we believe 
in what he said or did, whether we are for him or against him ; 
but for us to admit that during four years, carrying with them 
such a pressure of responsibility as the world has never witnessed 
before, he filled the measure of the vast space allotted him in the 
actions of mankind and in the eyes of the world, is to say that 
he was inspired of God, for nowhere else could he have acquired 
the enormous equipment indispensable to the situation. 

Where did Shakespeare get his genius ? Where did Mozart get 
his music? Whose hand smote the lyre of the Scottish plowman? 
and stayed the life of the German priest? God alone; and, so 
surely as these were raised up by God, inspired of God was 
Abraham Lincoln, and, a thousand years hence, no story, no 
tragedy, no epic poem will be filled with greater wonder than that 
which tells of his life and death. If Lincoln was not inspired of 
God, then were not Luther, or Shakespeare, or Burns. If Lincoln 
was not inspired of God, then there is no such thing on earth as 
special providence or the interposition of Divine power in the 
affairs" of men. 



No man is good enough to govern another man without that 
other's consent. — Abraham Lincoln, in 185^. 



88 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

LINCOLN. 



Charles H. Fowler. 



[Extract from oration delivered at Philadelphia, 1876, Centennial Exposition.] 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN was the representative character of 
his age. He incarnated the ideal RepubHc. No other man 
ever so fully embodied the purposes, the affections, and the power 
of the people. He came up among us. He was one of us. His 
birth, his education, his habits, his motives, his feelings, and his 
ambitions, were all our own. Had he been born among hereditary- 
aristocrats, he would not have been our President. But born in 
the cabin, and reared in the field and in the forest, he became the 
Great Commoner. The classics of the schools might have polished 
him, but they would have separated him from us. But trained in 
the common-school of adversity, his calloused palms never slipped 
from the poor man's hand. A child of the people, he was as 
accessible in the White House as he had been in the cabin. His 
practical wisdom made him the wonder of all lands. With such 
certainty did he follow causes to their ultimate effects, that his 
foresight of contingencies seemed almost prophetic. While we in 
turn were calling him weak and stubborn and blind, Europe was 
amazed at his statesmanship, and awed into silence by the grandeur 
of his plans. 

Measured by what he did, Lincoln is a statesman without a 
peer. He stands alone in the world. He came to the government 
by a minority vote. Without an army, without a navy, without 
money, without munitions, he stepped into the midst of the most 
stupendous, most widespread, most thoroughly equipped and ap- 
pointed, most deeply planned rebellion of all history. He stamped 
upon the earth, and two millions of armed men leaped forward. 
He spoke to the sea, and the mightiest navy the world ever saw 
crowned every wave. He breathed into the air, and money and 
munitions rained upon the people. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 89 

He is radiant with all the great virtues, and his memory will 
shed a glory upon this age that shall fill the eyes of men as they 
look into history. An administrator, he saved the nation in the 
perils of unparalleled civil war. A statesman, he justified his 
measures by their success. A philanthropist, he gave liberty to 
one race and salvation to another. A moralist, he bowed from the 
summit of human power to the foot of the cross, and became a 
Christian. A mediator, he exercised mercy under the most abso- 
lute abeyance to law. A leader, he was no partisan. A com- 
mander, he was untainted with blood. A ruler in desperate times, 
he was unsullied with crime. A man, he has left no word of 
passion, no thought of malice, no trick of craft, no act of jealousy, 
no purpose of selfish ambition. 

Thus perplexed, without a model and without a peer, he was 
dropped into these troubled years to adorn and embellish all that 
is good and all that is great in our humanity, and to present to 
all coming time the representative of the divine idea of free 
government. 



HONEST ABE OF THE WEST. 



Edmund Clarence Stedman. 



[I860 Republican Campaign Song:. Air: "Star-Spangled Banner.") 



THEN on to the holy Republican strife! 
And again, for a future as fair as the morning, 
For the sake of that freedom more precious than life, 

Ring out the grand anthem of Liberty's warning ! 
Lift the banner on high, while from mountain and plain, 

The cheers of the people are sounded again ; 
Hurrah ! for our cause — of all causes the best ! 
Hurrah ! for Old Abe, Honest Abe of the West ! 



I am always for the man who wishes to work. — Abraham LifP- 
coin, in 186J^. 



90 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

LINCOLN, THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE. 



Edwin Markham. 



[Read at Lincoln Birthday Dinner, given In 1900 by Republican Club of New York 

City.] 



WHEN the norn-mother saw the whirlwind hour, 
Greatening and darkening as it hurried on, 
She bent the strenuous heavens and came down 
To make a man to meet the mortal need. 
She took the tried clay of the common road — 
Clay warm yet with the genial heat of Earth, 
Dashed through it all a strain of prophecy ; 
Then mixed a laughter with the serious stuflF. 
It was a stuff to wear for centuries, • 
A man that matched the mountains, and compelled 
The stars to look our way and honor us. 

The color of the ground ^was in him, the red earth; 

The tang and odor of the primal things — 

The rectitude and patience of the rocks ; 

The gladness of the wind that shakes the corn ; 

The courage of the bird that dares the sea; 

The justice of the rain that loves all leaves; 

The pity of the snow that hides all scars; 

The loving-kindness of the wayside well; 

The tolerance and equity of light 

That gives as freely to the shrinking weed 

As to the great oak flaring to the wind — 

To the grave's low hill as to the Matterhorn 

That shoulders out the sky. 

And so he came. 
From prairie cabin up to Capitol, 
One fair ideal led our chieftain on. 
Forevermore he burned to do his deed 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 91 

With the fine stroke and gesture of a king. 
He built the rail-pile as he built the State, 
Pouring his splendid strength through every blow. 
The conscience of him testing every stroke, 
To make his deed the measure of a man. 
So came the Captain with the mighty heart: 
And when the step of earthquake shook the house, 
Wrenching the rafters from their ancient hold. 
He held the ridge-pole up, and spiked again 
The rafters of the Home. He held his place — 
Held the long purpose like a growing tree — ^ 
Held on through blame and faltered not at praise. 
And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down 
As when a kingly cedar green with boughs 
Goes down with a great shout upon the hills, 
And leaves a lonesome place against the sky. 



ST. GAUDENS'S LINCOLN STATUE, CHICAGO. 



Horace Spencer Fiske. 



UPRISEN from his fasced chair of state. 
Above his riven people bending grave, 
His heart upon the sorrow of the slave. 
Stands simply strong the kindly man of fate. 
By war's deep bitterness and brothers' hate 
Untouched he stands, intent alone to save 
What God himself and human justice gave, — 
The right of men to freedom's fair estate. 
In homely strength he towers almost divine. 

His mighty shoulders bent with breaking care, 
His thought-worn face with sympathies grown fine; 

And as men gaze their hearts as oft declare 
That this is he whom all their hearts enshrine, — 
This man that saved a race from slow despair. 



92 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

LINCOLN. 



Theodore Roosevelt. 



[Address, while President of the United States, at Lincoln's birthplace, February 
12, 1909, celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's birth.] 



WE have met here to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of 
the birth of one of the two greatest Americans; of one 
of the two or three greatest men of the nineteenth century ; of one 
of the greatest men in the world's history. This rail-splitter, this 
boy who passed Ijis ungainly youth in the dire poverty of the poor- 
est of the frontier folk, whose rise was by weary and painful 
labor, lived to lead his people through the burning flames of a 
struggle from which the nation emerged, purified as by fire, born 
anew to a loftier life. After long years of iron effort, and of 
failure that came more often than victory, he at last rose to the 
leadership of the Republic, at the moment when that leadership 
had become the stupendous world-task of the time. He grew to 
know greatness, but never ease. Success came to him, but never 
happiness, save that which springs from doing well a painful and 
a vital task. Power was his, but not pleasure. The furrows 
deepened on his brow, but his eyes were undimmed by either hate 
or fear. His gaunt shoulders were bowed, but his steel thews 
never faltered as he bore for a burden the destinies of his people. 
His great and tender heart shrank from giving pain ; and the task 
allotted him was to pour out like water the life-blood of the young 
men, and to feel in his every fiber the sorrow of the women. 
Disaster saddened but never dismayed him. As the red years of 
war went by they found him ever doing his duty in the present, 
ever facing the future with fearless front, high of heart, and 
dauntless of soul. Unbroken by hatred, unshaken by scorn, he 
worked and suffered for the people. Triumph was his at the last ; 
and barely had he tasted it before murder found him, and the 
kindly, patient, fearless eyes were closed forever. 

As a people we are indeed beyond measure fortunate in the 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 93 

characters of the two greatest of our public men, Washington and 
Lincoln. Widely though they differed in externals, the Virginia 
landed gentleman and the Kentucky backwoodsman, they were 
alike in essentials, they were alike in the great qualities which 
made each able to do service to his nation and to all mankind 
such as no other man of his generation could or did render. 
Each had lofty ideals, but each in striving to attain these lofty 
ideals was guided by the soundest common-sense. Each pos- 
sessed inflexible courage in adversity, and a soul wholly un- 
spoiled by prosperity. Each possessed all the gentler virtues 
commonly exhibited by good men who lack rugged strength of 
character. Each possessed also all the strong qualities commonly 
exhibited by those towering masters of mankind who have too 
often shown themselves devoid of so much as the understanding 
of the words by which we signify the qualities of duty, of mercy, 
of devotion to the right, of lofty disinterestedness in battling for 
the good of others. 

Lincoln saw into the future with the prophetic imagination 
usually vouchsafed only to the poet and the seer. He had in him 
all the lift toward greatness of the visionary, without any of the 
visionary's fanaticism or egotism, without any of the visionary's 
narrow jealousy of the practical man and inability to strive in 
practical fashion for the realization of an ideal. He had the 
practical man's hard common-sense and willingness to adapt means 
to ends ; but there was in him none of that morbid growth of mind 
and soul which blinds so many practical men to the higher things 
of life. 

We of this day must try to solve many social and industrial 
problems, requiring to an especial degree the combination of 
indomitable resolution with cool-headed sanity. We can profit by 
the way in which Lincoln used both these traits as he strove for 
reform. We can learn much of value from the very attacks which 
following that course brought upon his head, attacks alike by the 
extremists of revolution and by the extremists of reaction. He 
never wavered in devotion to his principles, in his love for the 



94 WERNER'S READINGS NO. U 

Union, and in his abhorrence of slavery. Timid and lukewarm 
people were always denouncing him because he was too extreme; 
but as a matter of fact he never went to extremes, he worked step 
by step; and because of this the extremists hated and denounced 
him with a fervor which now seems to us fantastic in its deifica- 
tion of the unreal and the impossible. At the very time when 
one side was holding him up as the apostle of social revolution 
because he was against slavery, the leading abolitionist denounced 
him as the "slave hound of Illinois." When he was the second 
time candidate for President, the majority of his opponents at- 
tacked him because of what they termed his extreme radicalism, 
while a minority threatened to bolt his nomination because he was 
not radical enough. He had continually to check those who 
wished to go forward too fast, at the very time that he overrode 
the opposition of those who wished not to go forward at all. The 
goal was never dim before his vision ; but he picked his way cau- 
tiously, without either halt or hurry, as he strode toward it, through 
such a morass of difficulty that no man of less courage would have 
attempted it, while it would surely have overwhelmed any man of 
judgment less serene. 

Yet perhaps the most wonderful thing of all, and, from the 
standpoint of the America of to-day and of the future, the most 
vitally important, was the extraordinary way in which Lincoln 
could fight valiantly against what he deemed wrong and yet pre- 
serve undiminished his love and respect for the brother from 
whom he differed. In the hour of a triumph that would have 
turned any weaker man's head, in the heat of a struggle which 
spurred many a good man to dreadful vindictiveness, he said truth- 
fully that so long as he had been in his office he had never willingly 
planted a thorn in any man's bosom, and besought his supporters 
to study the incidents of the trial through which they were pass- 
ing as philosophy from which to learn wisdom and not as wrongs 
to be avenged ; ending with the solemn exhortation that, as the 
strife was over, all should reunite in a common effort to save 
their common country. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 95 

He lived in days that were great and terrible, when brother 
fought against brother for what each sincerely deemed to be the 
right. In a contest so grim the strong men who alone can carry it 
through are rarely able to do justice to the deep convictions of 
those with whom they grapple in mortal strife. At such times 
men see through a glass darkly; to only the rarest and loftiest 
spirits is vouchsafed that clear vision which gradually comes to 
all, even to the lesser, as the struggle fades into distance, and 
wounds are forgotten, and peace creeps back to the hearts that 
were hurt. But to Lincoln was given this supreme vision. He 
did not hate the man from whom he differed. Weakness was as 
foreign as wickedness to his strong, gentle nature ; but his courage 
was of a quality so high that it needed no bolstering of dark 
passion. He saw clearly that the same high qualities, the sam.e 
courage, and willingness for self-sacrifice, and devotion to the 
right -as it was given them to see the right, belonged both to the 
men of the North and to the men of the South. 

As the years roll by, and as all of us, wherever we dwell, grow 
to feel an equal pride in the valor and self-devotion, alike of the 
men who wore the blue and the men who wore the gray, so this 
whole nation will grow to feel a peculiar sense of pride in the 
mightiest of the mighty men who mastered the mighty days ; the 
lover of his country and of all mankind ; the man whose blood 
was shed for the union of his people and for the freedom of a 
race, Abraham Lincoln. 



If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those 
dimensions not wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is 
when I contemplate the cause of my country deserted by all the 
world beside, and I standing up boldly and alone, and hurling de- 
fiance at her victorious oppressors. Here without contemplating 
consequences, before a high heaven and in the face of the world, 
I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land 
of my life, my liberty, and my love. — Abraham Lincoln, December 
20, 18S9. 



96 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

EMANCIPATION GROUP. 



John Greenleaf Whittier. 



AMIDST thy sacred efifigies 
Of old renown give place, 
O city, Freedom-loved I to his 
Whose hand unchained a race. 

Take the worn frame, that rested not 

Save in a martyr's grave ; 
The care-lined face, that time forgot, 

Bent to the kneeling slave. 

Let man be free ! The mighty word 
He spake was not his own ! 

An impulse from the Highest stirred 
These chiselled lips alone. 

The cloudy sign, the fiery guide. 

Along his pathway ran, 
And nature, through his voice, denied 

The ownership of man. 

We rest in peace where these sad eyes 
Saw peril, strife and pain; 

His was the nation's sacrifice. 
And ours the priceless gain. 

O symbol of God's will on earth 

As it is done above ! 
Bear witness to the cost and worth 

Of justice and of love. 

Stand in thy place and testify 

To coming ages long, 
That truth is stronger than a lie 

And righteousness than wrong. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 97 

ABOLITIONIST AND SLAVEHOLDER. 

Discussion between Judge Whipple and Colonel Carvel. 



Winston Churchill. 



[Arranged from "The Crisis."] 



Time : Just before the Civil War. Place : St. Louis. 

JUDGE WHIPPLE. What a miserable exhibition— Franklin 
Pierce of New Hampshire managed by Jefferson Davis of 
Mississippi ! 

Colonel Carvel. And he was well managed. 

Judge. What a pliant tool of your Southern slaveholders ! See 
the magnificent forts he permitted Davis to build up in the South, 
the arsenals he let him stock. The country does not realize this. 

Colonel. You should be satisfied now. Another Northern 
man is in the White House. 

Judge. Buchanan ! Worse than the first ! What are we com- 
ing to? Can't you see, Carvel, how one sin leads to another — 
how slavery is demoralizing a free people? 

Colonel. It is because you won't let it alone where it belongs. 
The welfare of the whole South depends on slavery. Our planta- 
tions could not exist a day without slave-labor. If you abolished 
that institution you would ruin millions of your fellow-country- 
men, — you would reduce sovereign States to a situation of dis- 
graceful dependence. And all for the sake of a low breed that 
ain't fit for freedom. Look at the South Americans. How do 
republics go there ? And the minute you and I let in niggers, who 
haven't any self-control, on an equal basis with as much of a vote 
as you have, — niggers that have lived like wild beasts in the depths 
of the jungle since the days of Ham — what's going to become of 
our Republic? 

Judge. Education. 

Colonel. Education isn't a matter of one generation, but of 
centuries. 



98 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Judge. Your prejudice is hide-bounfl, sir. 

Colonel. No, when God washed off this wicked earth and 
started new, He saw fit to put the sons of Ham in subjection. 

Judge. Divine institution ! A black curse ! Because the world 
has been a wicked place of oppression since Noah's day, is that 
any reason why it should so continue until the day of Judgment? 

Colonel. Now, see here, if we had any guarantee that you 
would let us alone where we are, to manage our slaves and to 
cultivate our plantations, there wouldn't be any trouble. But the 
country keeps on growing and growing, and you're not content 
with half. You want everything,^all the new States must abol- 
ish slavery. And after a while you will overwhelm us, and ruin 
us, and make us paupers. 

Judge. The nation is going to the dogs. We shall never 
prosper until the curse is shaken off, or wiped out in blood. But 
the party that is to save us was born last year on Washington's 
birthday. The Republican Party, sir. 

Colonel. Shucks ! The black Republican Party, made up of 
old fools and young anarchists and nigger-worshippers. Why, 
that party's a joke. Where's your leader? 

Judge. In Illinois. 

Colonel. What's his name? 

Judge. Abraham Lincoln. 

Colonel. He's a demagogue, an obscure lawyer, poor white 
trash ; born in a log-cabin. 

Judge. The nation doesn't know him yet ; but the day will come 
when it will. If the nation could have heard him, he would be 
President to-day. I happened to be at the convention. He came 
ambling out of the back of the hall, a lanky, gawky-looking man ; 
but the moment he opened his mouth he had us spellbound. The 
language he used was that of a God-sent prophet. He cried out : 
"We will say to the Southern disunionists, we won't go out of the 
Union, and yon shan't. This government cannot exist half slave 
and half free." 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 99 

ONE OF LINCOLN'S ROOMMATES SPEAKS. 



RoBERTus Love. 



ABE LINCOLN? Wull, I reckon! Not a mile f'om where 
we be, 
Right here in Springfiel', Ilhnoise, Abe used to room with me. 
He represented Sangamon, I tried it for Calhoun, 
And me and Abe was cronies then; I'll not forgit it soon. 

ril not forgit them happy days we used to sort o' batch 
Together in a little room that didn't have no latch 
To keep the other fellers out that liked to come and stay 
And hear them dasted funny things Abe Lincoln used to say. 

Them days Abe Lincoln and myself was pore as anything. 

Job's turkey wasn't porer, but we used to lafif and sing, 

And Abe was clean chuck full o' fun ; but he was sharp as tacks, 

For that there comic face o' his'n was fortified with fac's. 

Some fellers used to lafif at Abe because his boots and pants 

Appeared to be on distant terms ; but when he'd git a chance 

He'd give 'em sich a drubbin' that they'd clean forgit his looks, 

For Abe made up in common-sense the things he lacked in books. 

Wull, nex' election I got beat, and Abe come back alone; 

I kep' a-clinkin' on the farm, pervidin' for my own. 

You see, I had a woman, and two twins that called me paw; 

And Abe, he kep' a-clinkin', too, at politics and law. 

I didn't hear much more of Abe out there in old Calhoun 

For I was out o' politics and kinder out o' chune 

With things that happened ; but 'way back I'd named my two twin 

boys — 
One Abraham, one Lincoln ; finest team in Illinoise ! 
Wull, here one day I read that Abe's among the candidates 
(My old friend Abe!) for President o' these LInited States; 
And though I had the rhenmatiz and felt run down and blue, 
I entered politics agin and helped to pull him through. 



100 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

And when nex' spring he called for men to fetch their grit and guns 
And keep the ship o' State afloat, I sent him both my sons, 
And would 'a gone myself and loved to make the bullets whiz 
'F it hadn't b'en I couldn't walk account o' rheumatiz. 

Wull, Abe — my little Abe, I mean — he started out with Grant ; 

They buried him at Shiloh Excuse me, but I can't 

Help feelin' father-like, you know, for them was likely boys ; 
The' wasn't two another sich that went f 'om Illinoise ! 

And Lincoln — my son Lincoln — he went on by hisself, 
A-grievin' for his brother Abe they'd laid upon the shelf, 
And when he come to Vicksburg he was all thrashed out and sick ; 
And yet, when there was fightin'. Link fit right in the thick. 

One night afore them Rebel guns my pore boy went to sleep 
On picket dooty. . . . No, sir; 'tain't the shame that makes me 

weep: 
It's how Abe Lincoln, President, at Washin'ton, D. C, 
Had time to ricolleck the days he used to room with me ! 

For, don't you know I wrote him they'd sentenced to be shot 
His namesake, Lincoln Pettigrew, in shame to die and rot! 
The son of his old crony, and the last o' my twin boys 
He used to plague me so about, at Springfiel', Illinoise. 

Did he? Did Abe? Wull, now, he sent a telegraph so quick 
It burnt them bottles on the poles and made the lightnin' sick ! 
"1 pardon Lincoln Pettigrew. A. Lincoln, President." 
The boy has got that paper yit, the telegraph Abe sent. 

I guess I knowed Abe Lincoln ! And now I've come down here — 
Firs' time I b'en in Springfiel' for nigh on sixty years — 
To see his grave and tombstone, because — because, you see. 
We legislated in cahoots, Abe Lincoln did, and me. 



An army is a constitutional means of saving the Union against 
a rebellion. — Abraham Lincoln, written in 1863. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 101 

LINCOLN. 



Jonathan P. Dolliver. 



[From address before Republican Club of Buffalo, 1905.] 



SOME tell US that Lincoln was a great orator. If that is so, 
the standards of the schools, ancient and modern, must be 
thrown away. Perhaps they ought to be ; and when they are this 
curious circuit-rider of the law, who refreshed his companions with 
wit and argument from the well of English undefiled; this cham- 
pion of civil liberty, confuting Douglas with a remorseless logic, 
cast in phrases rich with the homely wisdom of proverbial litera- 
ture; this advocate of the people, head and shoulders above his 
brethren, stating their case before the bar of history, in sentences 
so simple that a child can follow them; surely such a one cannot 
be left out of the company of the masters who have added some- 
thing to the conquests of the mother-tongue. He was dissatisfied 
with his modest address at Gettysburg, read awkwardly from 
poorly-written manuscript, and thought Edward Everett's oration 
the best he had ever heard ; but Everett himself discerned, without 
a minute for reflection, that the little scrap of crumpled paper 
which the President held in his unsteady hand that day would be 
treasured from generation to generation after his own laborious 
deliverance had been forgotten. 

Within less than half a century this man, once despised, once 
derided, once distrusted and maligned, has been transfigured, in 
the light of universal history, so that all men, and all generations 
of men, may see him and make out, if possible, the manner of 
man he was. His life in this world was not long, less than three- 
score years, only ten of them visible above the dead level of affairs. 
Yet into that brief space events were crowded, so stupendous in 
their ultimate significance, that we lay down the narrative which 
records them with a strange feeling coming over us, that maybe, 
after all, we are not reading about a man at all, but about some 
mysterious personality, in the hands of the higher Powers, with a 
supernatural commission to help and to bless the human race. 



102 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

STORY OF LINCOLN. 



C. C. Hassler. 



TELL to the boys the story of Lincoln, 
Tell it to them when early in youth, 
Tell of his struggles for knowledge to fit him. 
Guide him thro' manhood in honored truth. 

Tell them of Lincoln ; yes, tell them the story, 
None more worthy of honor than he ; 

None was more proud of our national glory; 
None was more true to the flag of the free. 

Tell to the boys the story of Lincoln; 

Tell of his loyalty, tell of his hate — 
Not toward men, but the infamous measures 

False to the nation, the home and the State. 

Tell them; yes, tell them, his highest ambition 
Was of all men in the nation to stand 

Close to the hearts of the people who loved him — 
Loved him and chose him to rule in the land. 

Tell to the boys the sad story of Lincoln ; 

Tell of his trials when traitors defied 
And spurned the old flag ; how the nation's defenders 

At his call rallied and sprang to his side ; 

Tell how he sufifered when news of the battle 
Told of disaster, of wounded and dead ; 

Tell how his great noble heart was oft gladdened 
When as proud victors our armies v/ere led. 

Tell them ; yes, tell them the story and point them 
Up to a standard he would applaud ; 

Loyal in life to the State and the nation. 
True to one country, one flag and one God. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 103 

LINCOLN. 



Henry Cabot Lodge. 

f United States Senator.] 



[From address before Massachusetts liCgislature, February 12, 1909.] 



THAT nation has not lived in vain which has given to the 
world Washington and Lincoln, the best great men and 
rreatest good men whom history can show. 

We can pause to-day in the hurry of daily life and contemplate 
that great, lonely, tragic figure ; that imagination with its touch of 
the poet ; that keen, strong mind, with its humor and its pathos ; 
that splendid common-sense and pure character, and then learn 
from the life which the possessor of all these qualities lived, and 
from the deeds which he did, lessons which may not be without 
value to each of us in our own lives. 

Lincoln's paramount purpose was to save the Union, and he 
saved it. His critics thought he was sacrificing the anti-slavefy 
cause. He thought otherwise, and he was right. At the accepted 
time he emancipated the slaves and signed the death warrant of 
human slavery. Had he struck at the wrong moment he might 
have ruined the L^nion cause and thereby left the slaves in bond- 
age. He was a great statesman and he knew all the conditions, 
not merely part of them. 

Yet when all is said, it is not Lincoln's patient wisdom, his 
undaunted courage, his large abilities, that should really sink deep- 
est in -our hearts and minds to-day. Touch, if you can, as he 
touched, the "mystic chords of memory." Think of that noble 
character, that unwearied devotion to his country, that gentle heart 
that went out in sympathy to all his people. No one can read all 
this and not feel that he is lifted up and made better. Remember 
him as he lay dying, having offered up the last great sacrifice on 
the altar of his country. 

Then, indeed, you feel his greatness, and you cry out in the 
words of Bunyan, "So Valiant-for-Truth passed over, and all the 
trumpets sounded for him on the other side." 



104 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

DEATH OF LINCOLN. 



Charles G. Halpin. 



HE filled the nation's eye and heart, 
An honored, loved, familiar name, 
So much a brother that his fame 
Seemed of our lives a common part. 

His towering- figure, sharp and spare, 
Was with such nervous tension strung. 
As if on each strained sinew swung 

The burden of a people's care. 

He was his country's, not his own; 

He had no wish but for her weal ; 

Not for himself could think or feel. 
But as a laborer for her throne. 

Oh, loved and lost ! thy patient toil 

Had robed our cause in victory's light; 
Our country stood redeemed and bright, 

With not a slave on all her soil. 

A martyr to the cause of man. 
His blood is freedom's eucharist, 
And in the world's great hero list. 

His name shall lead the van. 



Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise 
whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is 
often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a 
peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good 
man. There will still be business enough. — Abraham Lincoln, in 
1850. 



LINCOLN CELEBR.ITIONS 105 

LINCOLN AND GETTYSBURG. 



George William Curtis. 



I From oration delivered at Eighteenth Annua! Reunion of the Society of 
the Army of the Potomac, at Gettysburg, July 3, 1887, many Southerners, sur- 
vivors of Confederate Army, being present] 



LIKE the House of Delegates in Williamsburg, where Patrick 
Henry roused Virginia to resistance ; like Faneuil Hall in 
Boston, where Samuel Adams lifted New England to independ- 
ence; like Carpenter's* Hall in Philadelphia, where the Continental 
Congress assembled, the field of "Gettysburg is invested with the 
undying charm of famous words fitly spoken. While yet the 
echoes of the battle might have seemed to linger in the awed and 
grieving air, while far beyond the Potomac the hostile armies still 
lay encamped and the final issue of the war was veiled, stood the 
sad and patient and devoted man, whose burden was greater than 
any man of his generation, and as greatly borne as any solemn 
responsibility in human history — the man for whom no disappoint- 
ment, nor calumny, nor defeat, nor calamitous disaster could ex- 
tort an unkind or ungenerous word of a single foe — the man who 
said of the Southern soldiers when the war began that, like their 
opponents, they "are American citizens, with essentially the same 
characteristics and powers ; exceptional advantages on one side are 
counterbalanced by exceptional advantages on the other. We 
must make up our minds that, man for man, the soldier from the 
South will be a match for the soldier from the North, and vice 
versa." By a singular fortune, like Washington through both 
parents a son of Virginia, he shares with Washington the afifec- 
tionate gratitude of his country. Upon this field he spoke the few 
simple words which enshrine the significance of the great contro- 
versy, and which have become a part of this historic scene, to 
endure with the memory of Gettysburg, and to touch the heart 
and exalt the hope of every American from the Gulf to the Lakes 
and from ocean to ocean, so long as this valley shall smile with 
spring and glow with autumn, and day and night and seed-time 
and harvest shall not fail. 



106 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Already he had said, with the pathetic yearning of a true Ameri- 
can heart, while the war was imminent, but had not yet begun : 
"We are not enemies, but friends ; we must not be enemies. 
Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds 
of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every 
battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone 
all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union 
when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels 
of our nature." To-day his prophetic vision is fulfilled. The 
murmur of these hosts of peace encamped upon this field of war, 
this universal voice of friendly greeting and congratulation, these 
cheers of the Gray echoing the cheers of the Blue, what are they 
but the answering music of those chords of memory ; the swelling 
chorus of the Union responding to the better angels of our nature? 
If there be joy in heaven this day, it is in the heart of Abraham 
Lincoln as he looks down upon this field of Gettysburg, 



ANOTHER WASHINGTON. 



Joel Benton. 



SOME opulent force of genius, soul, and race. 
Some deep life-current from far centuries 

Flowed to his mind and lighted his sad eyes, 
And gave his name, among great names, high place. 
But these are miracles we may not trace, 

Nor say why from a source and lineage mean 

He rose to grandeur never dreamt or seen 
Or told on the long scroll of history's space. 
The tragic fate of one broad hemisphere 

Fell on stern days to his supreme control, 
All that the world and liberty held dear 

Pressed like a nightmare on his patient soul. 
Martyr beloved, on whom, when life was done, 
Fame looked, and saw another Washington ! 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 107 

THIS WAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



[If desired, this poem may be recited by five pupils, each of the five reciting 
one of the first five stanzas and all five pupils reciting the last stanza in 



concert.] 



ONLY a baby, fair and small, 
Like many another baby son, 
Whose smiles and tears came swift at call, 
Who ate, and slept, and grew, that's all, — 

The infant Abe Lincoln. 
Only a boy like other boys, 

With many a task, but little fun. 
Fond of his books, though few he had, 
By his good mother's death made sad, — 
. The little Abe Lincoln. 
Only a lad, awkward and shy. 

Skilled in handling an ax or gun, 
Mastering knowledge that, by and by. 
Should aid him in duties great and high, — 

The youthful Abe Lincoln. 
Only a man of finest bent, 

A splendid man : a nation's son, 
Rail-splitter, lawyer, President, 
Who served his country and died content, — 

The patriot, Abe Lincoln. 
Only — ah ! what was the secret, then. 

Of his being America's honored son? 
Why was he famed above other men. 
His name upon every tongue and pen, — 

The illustrious Abe Lincoln? 
A mighty brain, a will to endure, 

Kind to all though a slave to none, 
A heart that was brave, and strong, and sure, 
A soul that was noble, and great, and pure, 
A faith in God that was held secure,— 
This was Abraham Lincoln. 



108 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

LINCOLN. 



William H. Taft. 

[President of the United States.] 



IT seems to me, as I study the life of Lincoln, that in his devel- 
opment and the position to which he attained there is more 
inspiration for heroism and usefulness to the country than in the 
life of any other one man in history. He had his weaknesses, like 
others. His education was faulty. But he clarified his methods 
of thought and expression so that he v/as able to meet every prob- 
lem presented by a solution as simple as it was effective. The 
responsibility which he had to assume when he came to the presi- 
dency was awful to contemplate. The criticism and abuse to 
which he was subjected in the crises of the Civil War one is 
ashamed to review as a matter of history. And yet it is of the 
utmost value in the encouragement of others that they may not be 
borne down by the weight of hostile and persistent criticism. 

We have never had in public life a man whose sense of duty 
was stronger, whose bearing toward those with whom he came in 
contact, whether liis friends or political opponents, was character- 
ized by a greater sense of fairness. And we have never had in 
public life a man who took upon himself uncomplainingly the woes 
of the nation and suffered in his soul from the weight of them as 
he did, nor in all our history a man who had such a mixture of 
far-sightedness, of understanding of the people, of common-sense, 
of high sense of duty, of power of inexorable logic, and of confi- 
dence in the goodness of God in working out a righteous result 
as had this great product of the soil of our country. 

One cannot read of Abraham Lincoln without loving him. One 
cannot think of his struggles, of his life and its tragic end, without 
weeping. One cannot study his efforts, his conscience, his hero- 
ism, his patriotism, and the burdens of bitter attack and calumny 
under which he suffered, and think of the place he now occupies 
in the history of this country, without a moral inspiration of the 
most stirring and intense cliaracter. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 109 

WAS LINCOLN KING ? 



ElIvA M. Bangs. 



WE talked of kings, little Ned and I, 
As we sat in the firelight's glow ; 
Of Alfred the Great, in days gone by, 
And his kingdom of long ago. 

Of Norman William, who, brave and stern, 

His armies to victory led. 
Then, after a pause, "At school we learn 

Of another great man," said Ned. 

"And this one was good to the oppressed. 
He was gentle and brave, and so 

Wasn't he greater than all the rest? 
'Twas Abraham Lincoln, you know." 

"Was Lincoln a king?" I asked him then, 

And in waiting for his reply 
A long procession of noble men 

Seemed to pass in the firelight by. 

When "No" came slowly from little Ned. 

And thoughtfully ; then, with a start, 
"He wasn't a king — outside," he said, 

"But I think he was in his heart." 



I desire so to conduct the affairs of this Administration that if, 
at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have 
lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend 
left, and that friend shall be down inside of xnt.— Lincoln's reply 
to Missouri Committee of Seventy, in 186^. 



110 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

CALMED BY TEE "STAR-SPANGLED BANNER." 



Thomas Nast. 

[Great cartoonist.] 



I WAS in Washington a few days prior to the inauguration of 
President Lincoln, in 1861, to take sketches. You intuitively 
recognized that trouble was brewing. Many people had sworn 
that Lincoln should not be inaugurated. Their utterances had 
fired the Northern heart, and the people loyal to the old flag were 
just as determined that the lawfully-elected President should be 
inaugurated, though blood should flow in the attempt. 

It was an awful time. People looked different then than they 
do now. Little knots of men could be seen conversing together 
in whispers on street corners, and even the whispers ceased when 
a person unknown to them -approached. Everybody seemed to 
suspect everyone else. Women looked askance at each other, and 
children obliged to be out would scurry home as if frightened, 
probably having been given warning by the parents. 

The streets at night, for several nights prior to the inaugural 
ceremonies, were practically deserted. There was a hush over 
everything. It seemed that the shadow of death was hovering 
near. I had constantly floating before my eyes sable plumes and 
trappings of woe. I could hear dirges constantly and thought for 
a while that I would have to leave the place or go crazy. I 
knew that all these somber thoughts were but imagination, but I 
also knev/ that the something which had influenced my imagina- 
tion was tangible — really existed. 

The 4th of March came and Lincoln was inaugurated quietly 
rnd without ostentation. After the services, and it became known 
that Lincoln had really been inducted into office, there was a 
savage snarl went up from the disaffected ones. The snarl was 
infectious. It was ansu^red by just as savage growls all over 
the city. But nothing was sai'l. A single yell of defiance, a 
pistol-shot, or even an oath would have precipitated a conflict. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS HI 

Men simply glared at each other and gnashed their teeth, but were 
careiul not to grit them so it could be heard. I went to my room 
in the Willard and sat down to do some work. I couldn't work. 
The stillness was oppressive. At least a dozen times I picked up 
my pencils, only to throw them down again. I got up and paced 
the floor nervously. I heard men on either side of me doing the 
same thing. Walking didn't relieve the mental strain. I sat down 
in my chair and pressed my head in my hands. 

Suddenly I heard a window go up and someone step out on the 
balcony. Everybody in the hotel had heard him. What is he 
going to do? I asked myself, and I suppose everyone else asked 
the same question. We hadn't to wait long. He began to sing 
the "Star-Spangled Banner" in a clear, strong voice. 

The efifect was magical, electrical. One window went up, and 
another, and heads popped out all over the neighborhood. People 
began to stir on the streets. A crowd soon gathered. The grand 
old song was taken up and sung by thousands. 

The spell was broken. Men wild with joy, some of them weep- 
ing and throwing their arms around one another's neck. Others 
were singing and all were happy. 

Washington was itself again. The "Star-Spangled Banner" 
had saved it. 



PATIENT ABRAHAM. 



OUT of the mellow West there came 
A man whom neither praise nor blame 
Could gild or tarnish ; one who rose 

With fate-appointed swiftness far 
Above his friends, above his foes; 

Whose life shone like a splendid star, 
To fill his people's hearts with flame ; 
Who never sought for gold or fame ; 
But gave himself without a price — 
A willing, humble sacrifice — 



112 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

An erring nation's Paschal lamb — 
The great, gaunt, patient Abraham. 

I never saw his wrinkled face, 
, Where tears and smiles disputed place ; 
I never touched his homely hand, 

That seemed in benediction raised, 
E'en when it emphasized command. 

What time the fires of battle blazed, 
The hand that signed the act of grace 
Which freed a wronged and tortured race; 
And yet I feel that he is mine — 
My country's; and that light divine 
Streams from the saintly oriflamme 
Of great, gaunt, patient Abraham. 

He was our standard-bearer ; he 
Caught up the thread of destiny. 
And 'round the breaking Union bound 

And wove it firmly. To his task 
He rose gigantic ; nor could sound 

Of menace daunt him. Did he' ask 
For homage when glad victory 
Followed his flag from sea to sea? 
Nay, but he staunched the wounds of war; 
And you owe all you have and are — 
And I owe all I have and am 
To great, gaunt, patient Abraham. 

The pillars of our temple rocked 
Beneath the mighty wind that shocked 
Foundations that the fathers laid : 

But he upheld the roof and stood 
Fearless, while others were afraid ; 

His sturdy strength and faith were good. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 113 

While coward knees together knocked, 

And traitor hands the door unlocked, 

To let the unbeliever in. 

He bore the burden of our sin, 

While the rebel voices rose to damn » 

The great, gaunt, patient Abraham. 

And then he died a martyr's death — 
Forgiveness in liis latest breath, 
And peace upon his dying lips. 

He died for me ; he died for you ; 
Heaven help us if his memory slips 

Out of our hearts ! His soul was true 
And clean and beautiful. What saith 
Dull history that reckoneth 
But coldly? That he was a man 
Who loved his fellows as few can; 
And that he hated every sham — 
Our great, gaunt, patient Abraham. 

Majestic, sweet, was Washington; 
And Jefferson was like the sun — 
He glorified the simplest thing 

He touched; and Andrew Jackson seems 
The impress of a fiery king 

To leave upon us : these in dreams 
Are oft before us ; but the one 
Whose vast work was so simply done— 
The Lincoln of our war-tried years — 
Has all our deepest love; in tears. 
We chant the In Memoriam 
Of great, gaunt, patient Abraham. 



The ballot is stronger than the hn\\t\..— Abraham Lincoln, in 
1856. 



114 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

MASTERFUL, GREAT MAN. 



/ 

Henry Tyrrell. / 

LINCOLN arose ! the masterful, great man, 
Girt with rude grandeur, quelHng doubt and fear, 
A more than king, yet in whose veins there ran 
The red blood of the people, warm, sincere, 
Blending of Puritan and cavalier. 
A will whose force stern warriors came to ask, 
A heart that melted at a mother's tear — 
These brought he to his superhuman task : 
Over a tragic soul he wore a comic mask. 
He was the South's child more than of the North ! 
His soul was not compact of rock and snow, 
But such as old Kentucky's soil gives forth, — 
The splendid race of giants that we know, 
Firm unto friend, and loyal unto foe, 
Such birthrights all environment forestall, 
Resistlessly their tides of impulse flow. 
This man who answered to his country's call 
Was full of human faults, and nobler for them all. 
He is a life, and not a legend, yet : 
For thousands live who shook him by the hand. 
Millions whose sympathies with his were set, 
Whose hopes and griefs alike with his were grand, 
Who deeply mourned his passing. They demand 
Our homage to the greatest man they saw, — 
They, his familiars ; and throughout our land 
The years confirm them, over race and law : 
Even of rancor now the voice is hush'd in awe. 



The fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be 
surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred defeats. — 
Abraham Lincoln, written in 1858. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 115 

SELF-SACRIFICING SOLDIER SAVED. 



Dramatized by Stanley Schell. 



CHARACTERS: 

Abraham Lincoln , . 

Farmer Owen y . 

Bennie Owen, the Condemned Soldier "' . 

Rev. James Allen 

Blossom Owen 

White House Attendant 

Several Soldiers. (These may be omitted.) 

Note. — Efifective introduction to play is following pantomime : Back- 
ground of stage is set as moonlight woods-scene; foreground open 
space with moss-covered ground. Back of foreground are trees, 
behind which, and marching to and fro, may be seen Union sol- 
dier sentry with gun on shoulder. As time passes he lags like a 
very tired person. Suddenly he straightens up and listens; sound 
of coming soldiers is heard. He faces front so that audience gets 
full view of face as Union soldiers appear. Sentry salutes officer 
and stands at '"attention'' awaiting orders. Officer seems to give 
orders, then both salute, and officer and soldiers pass on. For a 
while sentry keeps up faithful march, but soon nods, straightens 
up, nods, stumbles, yawns, etc. Finally he stumbles at foot of 
tree and sits a moment, trying to arouse himself. He nods again 
and again and is soon asleep. Enter Union officer with soldiers. 
Officer looks about and not seeing sentry begins a search and 
finds sentry asleep. He taps him on shoulder. Sentry rises and 
salutes. Officer speaks sternly, and places him under arrest. 
Sentry says nothing, but looks very sorrowful. He is marched 
out between soldiers and a new sentry is substituted. Curtain 
falls. 

SCENE I. 
Farmer Owen's sitting-room. Farmer Owen and Rev. James 
Allen seated near table. Farmer Owen looks sorrowful and 
Rev. Allen sympathetic. Blossom seated near fire-place, pre- 
tending to look at pictures. She has anxious expression as she 
listens. 

Farmer Owen [^sorrozvfuUy']. I thought, Mr. Allen, when I 
gave my Bennie to his country, that not a father in all this broad 
land made so precious a gift, — no, not one {^looks off in distance^. 
The dear boy only slept a minute, just a minute at his post; I 



116 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

know that was all, for Bennie never dozed over a duty. \^Proudly.'\ 
How prompt and reliable he was ! I know he only fell asleep one 
little second ; he was so young, and not strong, that boy of mine ! 
Why, he was as tall as I [^stretches up], and only eighteen! And 
now they shoot him because he was found asleep when doing sen- 
tinel duty. Twenty-four hours, the telegram said, — only twenty — • 
four — hours. [Utter prostration.] Where is Bennie now ? [Drops 
head on table and zveeps bitterly.] 

Rev. J.A.MES Allen [soothingly]. We will hope, with his heav- 
enly Father. 

Farmer O. [looking vp reverently]. Yes, yes; let us hope; 
God is very merciful. [Sits looking dreamily skyivard — comes 
back suddenly.] Why, I know now Bennie never did wrong in- 
tentionally. He said to me just before I consented to his going, 
"Father, I should be ashamed, when I am a man, to think I never 
used this great right arm" — and he held it out so proudly before 
me — "for my country, when it needed it. Palsy it rather than 
keep it at the plow." What could I say to such a speech? All I 
did say was, ""Go then, go, my boy ; God keep you." God has 
kept him, God has kept him, I think, Mr. Allen, God — has — kept — 
him. [5a3'.y these zvords more and more sloidy, as if, in spite of 
reason, his heart doubted them.] 

Rev. Allen. Like the apple of his eye, Mr. Owen; doubt it 
not. 

[Tap at kitchen door. Blossom opens it and gets a letter. She 
hurriedly closes door and goes to her father.] 

Blossom. It is from him, father. 

[Farmer O. 7'akes letter zvith trembling fingers, tries to break 
envelope but can't — Jiolds it tozvards minister zvith helplessness of 
a child. Rev. Allen takes letter and opens it, and reads as fol- 
lozvs :] 

"Dear Father: — 

"When this letter reaches you I shall be in eternity. At 
first, it seemed awful to me; but I have thought about it so 
much now, that it has no terror. They say they will not bind 



. ^ LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 117 

me, nor blind me ; but that I may meet my death hke a man. 
I thought, father, it might be on the battle-field, for my 
country, and that, when I fell, it would be fighting gloriously ; 
but to be shot down like a dog for nearly betraying it, — to 
die for neglect of duty ! O father, I wonder the very thought 
does not kill me ! But I shall not disgrace you. I am going 
to write you all about it ; and, when 1 am gone, you may tell 
all my comrades. I cannot now. 

"You know I promised Jemmie Carr's mother, I would 
look after her boy ; and, when he fell sick, I did all I could 
for him. He was not strong when he was ordered back 
to the ranks, and the day before that night. I carried all his 
luggage, besides my own, on our march. Towards night we 
went in on double-quick ; and though the luggage began to 
feel very heavy, everybody else was tired too; and as for 
Jemmie, if I had not lent him an arm now and then, he 
would have dropped by the way. I was all tired out when 
we came into camp, and then it was Jemmie's turn to be 
sentry, and I ivould take his place ; but I was too tired, 
father. I could not have kept awake if a gun had been 
pointed at my head; but I did not know it until — well, until 
it was too late." 

Rev. Allen [^stops, then speaks reverently^. God be thanked! 
I knew Bennie was not the boy to sleep carelessly at his post. 

"They tell me to-day that I have a short reprieve, given to 
me by circumstances, — 'time to write to you,' our good colonel 
says. Forgive him, father, he only does his duty ; he would 
gladly save me if he could; and do not lay my death against 
Jemmie. The poor boy is broken-hearted, and does nothing 
but beg and entreat them to let him die in my stead. 

"I can't bear to think of mother and Blossom. Comfort 
them, father! Tell them I die as a brave boy should, and 
that, when the war is over, they will not be ashamed of me, 
as they must be now. God help me ; it is very hard to bear ! 
Good-by, father ! God seems near and dear to me ; not at all 
as if He wished me to perish forever, but as if He felt sorry 
for his poor, sinful, broken-hearted child, and would take 
me to be with Him and my Saviour in a better, — better life.'' 

Rev. Allen [gives deep sigh as if bursting from heart]. Amen 
[solemnly]. Amen. 



118 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

"To-night, in the early twiHght, I shall see the cows all 
coming home from pasture, and precious little Blossom stand- 
ing on the back stoop, waiting for me ; but I shall never, never 
come ! God bless you all ! Forgive your poor 

"Bennie/' 

Farmer O. And that is all — I know. O God, can nothing be 
done to save my boy? Nothing? Thou can'st and Thou wilt. 
I know now Thou wilt. 

[Blossom stands zvith clasped hands leaning against her father. 
Minister Allen stands -with boived head. Farmer Owen as he 
says, "Thou can'st and Thou wilt" rises and looks up as if con- 
vinced his boy zvoidd be saved.] 

[curtain.] ^ , 



SCENE II. 

Lincoln's private work-room in White House. Lincoln 
seated at desk at work. Soldier stands at R. side of desk awaiting 
papers being signed by the President. Entrances are R. and L. 
side center. Suddenly an old White House Attendant comes in 
tremblingly and stands waiting. Lincoln, in deep study, looks 
up, and, discovering who is waiting, smiles and says :] 

Lincoln. Well, my man, what is it? Surely, you are not 
afraid ! 

Attendant. A little girl without begs to see you. I told her 
you were too busy. 

Lincoln. Never too busy to see a little child. Send her in in 
five minutes. 

[Lincoln resumes work and soon finishes with a sigh. Soldier 
c.vits R. zvith papers. Lincoln sinks into brown study. Suddenly 
L. door opens and Blossom enters with dozvncast eyes and folded 
hands, and stands still, looking at Lincoln, zvho suddenly dis- 
covers her; and, as he sees her fidly, his face floods ivith sunshine.] 

Lincoln. Well, my child [pleasant, cheerful tones], what do 
you want, so bright and early in the morning? 

Blossom [falteringly]. Bennie's life, please, sir. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 119 

Lincoln. Berinie, who is Bennie? 

Blossom. My brother, sir. They are going to shoot him for 
sleeping at his post. 

Lincoln. Oh, yes {looks over papers before him]. I remem- 
ber. It was a fatal sleep. You see, child, it was at a time of 
special danger. Thousands of lives might have been lost for his 
culpable negligence. 

Blossom {gravely^. So my father said, but poor Bennie was 
so tired, sir, and Jemmie so weak. He did the work of two, sir, 
and it was Jemmie's night, not his ; but Jemmie was too tired ; and 
Bennie never thought about himself, that he was tired too. 

Lincoln. What is that you say, child? {Eagerly.] Come 
here ; I do not understand. 

[Blossom goes to him and cli^nhs on his knees, and looks timid- 
ly into his eyes. Suddenly she re^nemhers letter and pulls it out 
of pocket zvhere she has it zvrapped in handkerchief. She univraps 
letter as if it were a precious thing and hands it to the President. 
Lincoln opens it, reads it carefully, pats Blossom gently on 
shotdder, puts her down; turns to desk, puts down letter and writes 
hastily a few moments, then rings a bell several times.] 

[Attendant enters L. door. Lincoln hands him a paper. 
Blossom looks on wonderingly.] 

Lincoln. Send this dispatch at once — at once; understand f 
[Turns lovingly to Blossom.] Tell me your name, little girl. 

Blossom. Blossom, sir. 

Lincoln. Blossom — what a sweet name, and just suited to 
so sweet and brave a maid. You shall go home, now, Blossom,' 
and tell that father of yours, who could approve his country's sen- 
tence, even when it took the life of a child like that, that Abraham 
Lincoln thinks the life far too precious to be lost. Go back, or — 
wait until to-morrow ; Bennie will need a change after he has so 
bravely faced death ; he shall go with you. 

Blossom. God bless you, sir ; God bless you. {Stands beside 
Lincoln, holding his hand ivith both hands and looks into his 
face. Lincoln, zvho has risen on her first zvords, looks at her 
with happy face.] 



120 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Lincoln. God has blessed me already — little Blossom — first in 
sending you here, and lastly in permitting me once again to save 
the life of a human being. 

[curtain.] 



SCENE III. 

Same anteroom of White House, two days later. Lincoln 
is again seated near desk, but this time with happy face. Blossom 
is on his knee. At rise of curtain she seems to say something 
funny; Lincoln laughs heartily, then suddenly stops and places 
his hands on her head as if blessing her. Several soldiers enter, 
Bennie Owen among them. Blossom is about to rush to him, 
but Lincoln gently detains her. He rises and moves forward to 
Bennie. Soldiers about him move to R. and L. of stage, leaving 
Lincoln and Blossom and Bennie near center front. Lincoln 
picks up a strap and fastens it on Bennie's shoulder. 

Lincoln [looking at soldiers and then at Bennie]. The sol- 
dier that could carry a sick comrade's baggage with his own, and 
die for the act so uncomplainingly, deserves well of his country. 
You have won the strap, my brave boy. May my son in similar 
situation do a similar act. Go home to your father, and enjoy a 
furlough. Good-bye. [Shakes Bennie's hand. Bennie salutes 
and starts for L. exit.] 

Blossom. Say good-bye to me, sir, too; I should like to go 
with Bennie now. 

Lincoln [taki)ig her into his arms and suddenly claspi)ig her 
close, then kissing her]. May my boy be as brave as you — good- 
bye — Blossom — God bless you — God bless you. 

[curtain.] 



Heroic soul, in homely garb half hid, 

Sincere, sagacious, melancholy, quaint; 
What he endured, no less than what he did, 

Has reared his monument and crowned him saint. 

— /. T. Trozvbridge. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 121 

LINCOLN'S DAY. 



Exercise for Twenty or More Pupils. 

Lincoln, born February 12, 1S09 — Died April 1"), 1865. 



Decorate walls with flags; display portrait of Lincoln and pic- 
ture of log-house where he was born. At beginning of cx.Tcisi 
children stand at back of stage. Pupil 1 steps forward; and, 
pointing to picture of Lincoln's birthplace, says : 
Pupil 1. Built of logs, grown old and black. 

With mosses filling each chink and crack, 

Never a window and ne'er a door, 

With only hardened earth for floor. 

Little, and old, and mean, and low, 

It stood one winter, long ago. 

When on a February morn, 

Little Abraham Lincoln was born. 
Pupil 2. [stepping forward]. When was this? 
Pupil 1. With all their smiles and all their tears, 

Over one hundred we count the years 

Since that day to the past have sped 

Numbering him with the quiet dead. 
Pupil 2. Where was he born so long ago? 
Pupil 1. He was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky. 

[Three pupils step forzvard, holding cards, one card giving the 
year, second card the month, third card the day of his birth.] 

All Pupils. We'll keep his memory green alway. 

Pupil 1. This is the year. 

Pupil 2. The month. 

Pupil 3. The day. 

All Pupils. When he opened his baby eyes. 

To grow to a man both good and wise, — 
A man whose wisdom, truth, and worth 
Have made him honored o'er all the earth. 
We children too, will his name revere, 
Keeping his birthday every year, 
While wreaths of laurel to him we bring, 
And many a song in his praise will sing. 



122 



WERNERS READINGS NO. 45 



America. 



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free, Thy name I love; I love thy 

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fa - thera died, Land of the pil - grim's pride, 

rocks and rills. Thy woods and tern • pled hilla; 

tongues a - wake ; Let all that breathe par - take ; 

land be bright With free - dom's ho - ly light; 



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LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 



123 



Song : Tune : "America." 

For thee, the true and great, 
Whose was the martyr's fate, 

Our tears shall fall. 
Honor unto thy name, 
Brighter shall grow the fame 
Of him who did proclaim 

Freedom to all. 

[One pupil hangs zvreath of laurel above portrait. Other chil- 
dren step forzuardj and, as each one speaks, the rest make motions 
suggested by text.] 

All Pupils. We tell of the years of toil that sped 

Roughly over his childish head ; 

Yet sturdy, strong, and stout of heart, 
"Through all he acted well his part. 

So listen now, if you'd like to know 

What he could do so long ago. 
Pupil 1. This is the way he planted corn. 

Steadily working night and morn. 
Pupil 2. Driving a team of horses, so. 

Pupil 3. Helping to plough. 

Pupil 4. To reap. 

Pupil 5. To mow. 

Pupil 6. And old folks say he couldn't be beat 

When swinging the flail that threshed the wheat. 
Pupil 7. Chopping wood with the greatest care. 

Pupil 8. Making a table, shelf, or chair. 

Pupil 9. Tending baby for mother to rest ; 

Always trying to do his best. 
All Pupils. Ever ready for honest work. 

And whatsoever came to his hand 

He did with his might, we understand. 



124 



WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 



Pupil 10. He learned to read and learned to write, 

Doing his best by the fitful light 
Of the backlog, sending its sparks on high 
Till they seemed like stars in the evening sky. 

Pupiiv 11. Yet little schooling was there for him; 

For poverty, surly, dark and grim. 
Set him his tasks from day to day, 
And portioned the time for work, not play. 

Pupil 12. How long did he live in Kentucky? 

Pupil 13. Until 1816, when his father moved to an uncleared 
tract of land in Indiana. Here Abraham helped clear the land, and 
sometimes was "hired boy" for neighboring farmers. He also 
worked as carpenter and cabinet-maker, and split rails. You 
know he is sometimes called "The Rail-Splitter.'' 

Pupil 14. Still, as the years went by, he grew 

Into a man, so honest, true. 
That people pointed with pride to him. 

Pupil 15. For a short time he was a boatman on the Mis- 
sissippi river, and went as far as New Orleans. 

Pupil 16. In 1832 he was a captain in the Black Hawk War. 

Pupil 17. A lawyer, next to the halls of state 

His country called him to legislate. 

Pupil 18. They made him a member of Congress then. 

And called him "one of our rising men." 

Pupil 19. There came a time when people said, 

"He shall be at the nation's head." 
And then on the country's weal intent, 
Lincoln was made the president. 

All Pupils. The years that followed, you know them well ; 
Sad are the stories that records tell ; 
For war's red banners waved overhead. 
And the nation mourned for her children dead. 
Yet, spite of troubles, of doubts and fears, 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 



US 



Pupil 20. 



All Pupils. 



That haunted his path through weary years, 

He kept his faith in the God above, 

And looked on the erring ones in love. 

Alas ! when troubles seemed almost o'er, 

And we heard peace knock at the nation's door. 

From east to west the sad news sped, 

"Let the country mourn for her president — dead." 

Thus for his country a martyr died, 

He who, safe to the other side. 

Through perils of war and adverse fate. 

Had safely guided the ship of state. 

Honor his memory, children, all; 

Yet never a tear from your eyes should fall. 

For, though he walks on this earth no more, 

A life like his can never be o'er. 

\_Pointing to flag.^ 
Let the flag of his country above him wave, 
The country he gave his life to save. 
And every year, when this month comes round, 
And the snow lies white on the frozen ground. 
From east and west, from south and north. 
Let us see the children come marching forth. 
In the name of Freedom to keep for aye 
February the twelfth as a holiday. 



THE BIBLE. 



In regard to this great book, I have but to say, it is the best 
gift God has given to man. All the good Saviour gave to the 
world was communicated through this book. But for it we could 
not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's 
welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. To 
you I return my most sincere thanks for the very elegant copy of 
the great Book of God which you present. — Abraham Lincoln to 
a Negro delegation, 1864- 



126 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN. 



Exercise for a Group of Children 



RECITATION. 

NO countries have the heroes 
So loyal, good and great, 
As Washington and Lincoln, 
Whose births we celebrate. 

Their hands to help were ready, 

Their judgments keen and true; 
Long may they live in memory's halls, 

Their deeds each year renew. 

We celebrate each year with love 

Their birthdays, far and near. 
Our flags and banners wave on high. 

For honored names so dear. - 

[Picture of Washington should be on one side of platform, and 
one of Lincoln opposite.] 

Four Children [marching in singing follozving words to tune 
of "America'']. 

We march with hearts so true. 
Our tributes we renew, 

To heroes dear; 
Their lives we emulate 
We crown them good and great. 
Each year we celebrate 
Their lives so dear. 

First Speaker [holding wreath of evergreens, steps forward 
to picture of M^ashington]. 

O glorious Washington, thy face we view. 
So strong to think, to act, to speak; 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS \27 

A soldier wise, a leader true ; 

A man whom all the world would seek. 

Ready for duty to God and man, 

To country for the country's gooi ; 
To fight for liberty and wisely plan 

An independent brotherhood. 

So Washington I now will crown 

With evergreens so fair, 
Unfading shall be his renown. 

Our love for him declare. 

All. And ever anew our hearts shall love 

His glorious deeds, his life, his name; 
And ever anew our voices sing, 
In loyal praises of his fame. 

Second Speaker \zvith zureath of evergreens, steps forward to 
picture of Lhicohi]. 

O Lincoln ! Great and wise and good, 

Our gratitude to thee is due ; 
A man beloved and understood, 
So just, so loyal, and so true ! 

Struggling, striving, pushing onward. 

Ever doing what seemed best ; 
Guarding, guiding, planning union. 

Peace, and love and rest. 

So now, our Lincoln, I would crown. 

With evergreens so fair; 
And may his name forever live. 

Our love for him declare. 

All. And ever anew our hearts shall love 

His glorious deeds, his life, his name; 
And ever anew our voices sing. 
In loyal praise our hero's fame. 



128 



WERNER'S RE ADEN GS NO. 45 

Hail Columbia. 



maestoso. 




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1. Hail, Col - um - bia, bap - py land, •? Hail,i ye he - roes, 

2. Sons of pa - triot sons of yore. Pre -serve your rights, de- 

3. Sound a - loud the trump of fame, *? Let Our Wash - ing- 



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fend your shore, Let no rude foe with im - pious hand, Let 
ton's loved name Ring thro' the world with loud ap - plause. Ring 



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fought and bled in free-dom's couse, And when the storm of war was gone, En- 
no rude foe with im-pious hand, In -vade the shrine where sa-credlies, Of 
thro' the Vorld with loud ap-plause, Let ev - 'ry clime to free-dom dear, *f 
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joyed the peace your val - or won. Let In - de - pend - - ence 
toil and blood the well-earned prize. While off - 'ring peace, sin- 
Xist - en with a joy - ful ear. With won -'drous skill, • with 



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LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 



129 



HAII. COLUMBIA — Continued. 



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be our bo^t, r* Ev - er mind- f ul what it cost^ ^ Ey - er grate-ful 
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matchless pow'r, He governed in the fear - f ul hour Of bor - rid war, and 




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for the prize, f Let its al - tar reach the-eWes. 
will' pre - vail,- And ev • 'ry ecbeme of dis -cord fail, firm, u - nit • ed 
ruled with ease Our bap- P7 land in ti™e of peace. 



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130 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Song. [Time: "Hail Columbia."^ 

Sound, sound the trump of fame ! 

Let Washington's great name 

Ring thro' the world with loud applause, 

Ring thro" the world with loud applause ; 

Let every clime, to freedom dear, 

Listen with a joyful ear; 

With equal skill, with steady power. 

He governs in the fearful hour 

Of horrid war, or guides with ease 

The happier time of honest peace. 

CHORUS. 

Firm, united let us be 
Rallying round our liberty, 
As a band of brothers joined, 
Peace and safety we shall find. 

Boys [ivavinij; flags]. 

We wave our country's flags on high, 

We're steadfast, each a loyal son, 
We cheer those names that will not die, 

Our Lincoln and our Washington. 

GiRivS [zvaving handkerchiefs]. 

We join our cheers for heroes brave. 

Praise courage firm, and faith sublime. 
Each gave his life our land to save. 

We'll praise those names in every clime. 



t»0YS. 



No bells e'er peeled such tidings grand. 
As those on Independence morn. 

The echoes rolled from strand to strand 
For liberty and Washington. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 131 

Girls. Again bells rang for slaves now free, 
For Union and for Lincoln true. 
Our States unite from sea to sea, — 

Oh, cheer the Red and White and Blue ! 

Song. [Air: March from "Faust.''] 

Glory and love to the men of old ; 

Their sons may copy their virtues bold; 

Courage in heart and a sword in hand. 

Yes, ready to fight or ready to die for Fatherland. 

Who needs bidding to dare by a trumpet blown ? 

Who lacks pity to spare, when the battle is won ? 

Who would fly from a foe, if alone or last? 

And boast he was true, as coward might do, 

When peril is past? 

[Repeat iirst four lines.\ 



ACROSTIC. 



Epigrams from Lincoln's Writings, for Seven Pupils. 



L et none falter who thinks he is right. 

I know the Lord is on the side of right, but it is my constant 

anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the 

Lord's side. 
N o man is good enough to govern another man without that 

other's consent. 
C ome what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe. 
n that name a eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add bright- 
ness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike 

impossible. 
L et us make up our mind that when we do put a new star upon 

our banner, it shall be a fixed one. 
N owhere in the world is presented a government of so much 

liberty and equality. 



132 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

HISTORY OF LINCOLN IN BRIEF. 



Exercise for 28 Pupils. 



PUPIL 1. In 1806, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were 
married in Kentucky. 
Pupil 2. In 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky. 
Pupil 3. In 1816, the Lincoln family removed to Perry 
County, Indiana. 

Pupil 4. In 1818, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's 
mother, died. 

Pupil 5. In 1819, Thomas Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's father, 
married a second time, Sally Bush Johnson. 

Pupil 6. In 1830, the Lincoln family removed to Illinois. 

Pupil 7. In 1831, Abraham Lincoln located at New Salem, 
Illinois. 

Pupil 8. In 1832, Abraham Lincoln was made captain in the 
Black Hawk War. 

Pupil 9. In 1833, Abraham Lincoln was appointed postmaster 
at New Salem. 

Pupil 10. In 1834, Abraham Lincoln was appointed surveyor 
and was elected to the Illinois Legislature. 

Pupil 11. In 1835, Abraham Lincoln fell in love with Anne 
Rutledge. 

Pupil 12. In 1836, Abraham Lincoln was re-elected to the 
Illinois Legislature. 

Pupil 13. In 1837, Abraham Lincoln received his license to 
practise law. 

Pupil 14. In 1838, Abraham Lincoln was re-elected to the 
Illinois Legislature. 

Pupil 15. In 1840, Abraham Lincoln was re-elected to the 
Illinois Legislature and was made Presidential Elector on the 
Harrison ticket. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 133 

Pupil 16. In 1842, Abraham Lincoln .married Mary Todd. 

Pupil 17. In 1843, birth of Lincohi's hrst chill, Robert Todd 
Lincoln. 

Pupil 18. In 1846, Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Con- 
gress of the United States. Birth of Lincoln's second child, Ed- 
ward Baker Lincoln. 

Pupil 19. In 1848, Abraham Lincoln was sent as delegate to 
the Philadelphia National Convention. 

Pupil 20. In 1850, birth of Lincoln's third child, William 
Wallace Lincoln. 

Pupil 21. In 1853, birth of Lincoln's fourth child, Thomas 
Lincoln. 

Pupil 22. In 1856, Abraham Lincoln helped form the Repub- 
lican Party. 

Pupil 23. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln debated with Stephen 
A. Douglas. 

Pupil 24. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of 
the United States. 

Pupil 25. In 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

Pupil 26. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation 
Proclamation. 

Pupil 27. In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was re-elected President 
of the United States. 

Pupil 28. In 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John 
Wilkes Booth. Buried at Springfield, Illinois. 



Taking slaves into new territories, and buying slaves in Africa, 
are identical things,— identical rights or identical wrongs ; and 
the argument which establishes one will establish the other. Try 
a thousand years for a sound reason why Congress shall not hinder 
the people of Kansas from having slaves, and, when you have 
found it, it will be an equally good one why Congress should not 
hinder the people of Georgia from importing slaves from Africa. 
— Abraham Lincoln, 1859. 



134 



WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Battle-Hymn of the Republic. 




1. Mine eyes have" seen the glo - ry of the com - ing of the Lord : He in 

2. I have seen Him in - the watch-fires of a hun- dred circling comps ; They have 
8. I kave read a fi • ery gos - pel writ in burn-ished rows of steej; As ye 

4. He has sound- ed forth the trum - pet that shall nev - er call le - treat ; He is 

6. In the beau - ty of the lil - ies Chj-ist was bom a -cross ^he sea; ^ith a 



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tramp- ling out the vin - tage, where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath 

build - ed Him. an al - tar iu the evo - ning dews and damps; I can 

deal with my con - tem - ners so with you . my grace shall deal ; Let the 

«l(t • ing out the hearts of men be- fore His judg - ment seat ; Oh, be 

glo - ry In His bo - som that trans- fig - ures you and me ; As He 



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loosed the fate f ul light-ning of His tejr - ri - ble swift sword : His truth is marching on. 
read His righteous sentence by thedim and flar- ing lamps: His day is marching on. 
He- ro born of wo-man. crush the serpent with His heel: Since God is marching on. 
$wift, my soul, to an - .iwer Him ! be iu - bi- lant, my feet I Our God is marching on. 
died to make men ho - ly, let us die to make sten free: While God is marching oh. 



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Olo - ry, glo - ry Hal - le - In - jah 



Glo - ry, glo - ry Hal - le - Iu - Jah ! 




LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 135 

TABLEAUX VIVANT : WAR, SLAVERY, PEACE. 



Characters : Columbia, Slavery, War, Peace and large portrait 
of Lincoln. 

Costumes: 

Columbia, golden-haired girl in Columbia costume. 
Slavery, black girl in long, flowing gray gown, with shackled 

hands. 
War, tall girl or man, with strong features, black eyes, black 

hair; robed in black or dark steel gray, wearing helmet 

and carrying sword or musket. 
Peace, clothed in white with wings and gilt crown; dove on 

shoulder and olive branch in hand. 

Tableaux. 

Music: ''Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" ("Red, White and 
Blue"). 

Curtains open and disclose Tableau : Large pedestal on 
which is seated Columbia gazing lovingly at portrait of Lin- 
coln, which she is holding. 

Music : "Way down upon the S'wanee River." 

Tableau continued: Enter Slavery, glides slowly in and 
kneels with supplicating gesture before Lincoln's portrait, 
but slightly to left of it, her chains clanking. 

Music : "Battle Hymn of the Republic." 

War enters at right, advances with martial tread, takes 
position at R. of Columbia. 

Music : "America." 

Peace enters at stage rear, mounts pedestal behind Colum- 
bia and spreads arms above group in protecting fashion. 
Throw tableau light over whole. 



136 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean. 






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Oh, Co - lumbia, the gem of the o-cean The home of the brave and the free. The 
When war wing'd its wide des-o la-tion, And threaten'd the land to de - form, The 
The 6tar spangled banner bring hither. O'er Columbia's true sons let it wave ; May the 

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shrine of each patriot's de - vo-tion, 
ark 'then of freedom's foundation, 
wreaths they have won never with - er. 



A world of - f ers horn -age to thee ; Thy 

Co - lum - bia, rode safe thro' the storm : With the 
Nor its stars cease to shine on the brave j May the 



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mandates make he - roes as - sem- ble. When Lib - er - ty's form stands in view ; Thy 
garlands of vie - fry around her, When so proudly she bore her brave crew, With hec 
ser- vice u- ni - ted ne'er sev-er, But hold to their col - era so true; The 



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banners make tyr - an - ny tremble, 
flag proudly float - ing be - fore her, 
ar - my and na - vy for - ev - er, 



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When borne by the red, white and bine. When 
The boast of the red, white and blue. The 
Thre.e cheers for the red, white and blue, Three 




borne by the red, white and bltie, 
boast of the red, white and blue, 
cheers for the red, white and blue, 

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When borne by the red, white and blue. Thy 

The boast of the red, white and blue. With her 
Three cheers for the red, white and blue, The 



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LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 



137 



COliCMBIA, THE C.Y.M OF THE OCEAN — Continued. 



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ban-nera make tyr - an - ny trem-ble, 
flag proud - ly float-iug be - fore her, 
Ar - my and Na - vy for - ev - er, 

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When borne by 
The boast of 
Three cheers for 

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the red, 
the red, 
the red 



white,and 
white,and 
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blue, 
blue. 



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RAIL-SPLITTER DRILL. 



Characters: Not more than 12 tall and thin boys. 

Costume: Overall suit over calico shirt ; straps of overalls pass 
over shoul;!ers to hold overalls in place. Six boys carry 
axes and six carr}- fence-rails. 

1. Enter boys, carrying axes across shoulders, at right rear 

entrance. Enter boys, carrying fence-rails across shoul- 
ders, at left rear entrance. 

2. March across stage to back center. Halt a second. 

3. One boy from each side marches down stage to front side 

by side. Separate at front, one passing to right and 
the other to left, March around stage to back center. 

4. Axe-boys march forward in couples. Fence-rail boys do 

likewise but behind Axe-boys. Axe-boys form in three 
groups of two each across front of stage. Fence-rail 
boys form in two groups of three each at right and left 
of stage center and back of Axe-boys. 

5. Axe-boys form in groups of threes and form circle about 

Fence-rail boys. Fence-rail boys have set up rails be- 
tween them and knelt at bottom of rails, looking up at 
them. Axe-boys stand with axes raised as if about to 
strike rails. 



138 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

6. Kneeling boys rise quickly and grab rails. All run to stage 

center and stand back to back with rails thrust out in 
front of body. Axe-boys take positions at end of each 
rail with axes raised as if to strike. 

7. Fence-rail boys move as one body around in a circle. Re- 

verse and revolve in other direction. 'Axe-boys stand 
as if surprised. 

8. Fence-rail boys run swiftly from center to corners of stage 

front, rear and sides. Axe-boys run to center, stand 
back to back and face outward. Axes are raised as if 
about to strike. Fence-rail boys stand with rails raised 
as if also about to strike. 

9. Fence-rail boys and Axe-boys approach one another 

stealthily, meet and join axes and rails ; revolve ; march 
to stage front and sing to tune "Marching thro' 
Georgia" : 

We are the Rail-splitter Boys 

Of dear America 

Leading all the bravest on, 

Where the fight is strong. 

Leading onward to the light 

So far, far away, 

While we are bringing freedom homeward. 
Hurrah, hurrah, we made the black boys free. 
Hurrah, hurrah, the black boys of Dixie. 

So we shout, and sing, hurray 

Every blessed day 

While we are marching on with Freedom. 
All face stage right, and, with rails and axes across shoulders, 
march off stage. 



He who does something at the head of one regiment, will eclipse 
him who does nothing at the head of a hundred. — Abraham Lifi' 
coin, in 1861. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 



139 



The Star-spangled Banner. 



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1. Oh, eay, can you see, by the dawn's ear- ly light, What bo proudly we hail'd at the 

2. On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,Where the foe's haughty host In dread 
8. And where is that band who so vaunting - ly swore. That the hav - oc of war and the 
4. Oh, thus be it ev - er when freemen shall stand Be - tween their loved home and wild 



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twilight's last gleaming, WhosebroadstripesandbrightstarSithro'theper-ll-ous flght,0'erthe 
si - lence re - po - ses, What is that which the breeze, o'er the tower - Ing steep, A8 It 
bat -tie's con - fu - sion,' A . , home and a country should leave us no more? Their 
war's des - o - la - tion ; Blest with vict'ry and peace,maytheheav'n-resoaedlandPraiBethe 

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ram-parts we ■watch'd,were so gal - lant-ly streaming? And the rockets' red glare,the bombs 
fit - ful • ly blows, half conceals, half dis-clos-es? Now itcatch-es the gleam of the 
blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pol - lu - tion. No re - fuge could save the 
pow'r that hath made and prcserv'd us a na - tion ! Then conquer we must, wh«n otir 

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r in air, Gave proof thro' the nightthat our flag was still'there, Oh, Bay does that 

s first beam, In full glo - ry ro - fleet -ed,now shines on the stream : 'Tis the star-span-gled 

: and slave From the ter-ror of flight or the gloom of the grave: And the star-span-gled 

is- just. And this be our mot -to: "In God is our trust I" And the star-span-gled 




Btar-span-gled ban-ner yet wave "1 

ban-ner: oh, long may it wave I 

ban-ner in tri-umphdoth wave ^O'er the land of the fre«, and the home of the brftvt. 

ban-ner in tri - umph shall wave J 



tlA4 — tALU^IA DAAOAA TT«Wy 



140 JJ^ERXERS READINGS NO. 45 

HISTORICAL EXERCISES FOR LINCOLN'S DAY. 



Stage Dirfxtions: Bust of Lincoln at front of platform, with 
cast of Emancipation Group. Several casts or pieces of sculp- 
• ture would add to interest of exercises. One or more por- 
traits should also be shovvn^ with flags and evergreen. 

Song: "Star-Spangled Banner'' By the School. 

Declamation : "Lincoln's Statue." By a Pupil. 

Lincoln's Statue. 

IN many cities of our country the visitor will see, in bronze or 
marble, the similitude of one striking figure. It is that of a tall, 
gaunt man, with rugged and care-lined features, plain and unpre- 
tentious. But there is a singular dignity in the commanding figure, 
and the seamed countenance is irradiated by a benign purpose, the 
nobility of which, and the profound satisfaction of it, overmaster 
even the saclness of his eyes. And, whatever the act or attitude in 
which he is represented, — whether bending over the slave unman- 
acled at his feet, or laying down the pen whose stroke had given 
him that freedom, — the same inherent nobility stamps every pre- 
sentment of the familiar form and face. We can never tell the 
story of our nation's growth and transformation and leave out his 
part in it; and we cannot speak of typical American manhood and 
patriotism and not first remember him — Abraham Lincoln, "the 
supreme American of our history.'' He stands midway of our 
national history, as Washington stood at its beginning, — with the 
same innate authority, the same perception of the nation's destiny 
and of its peril, the same unswerving fidelity to noble, patriotic 
ideals, and with a devotion even more consummate. 

Recitation : "To Lincoln's Bust in Bronze,'' by Richard Watson 
Gilder. (See page 7d>.) By a Pupil. 

Declamation : "Achievement and Patriotic Service." By a 
Pupil. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 141 

Achievement and Patriotic Service. 
In his story the romance of possible achievement and the never- 
lessening, ever-new opportunities of patriotic service in our re- 
public are written large,— in characters, indeed, which the child 
may spell, in words the unlearned may understand, in lines which, 
however familiar, the youth may thrill as he declaims. To this 
plain man millions of our countrymen owe their citizenship, and 
their manhood itself. While other millions, whom none may yet 
number, owe, and will owe, a debt not less great,— the perpetuity 
of the nation, and the effacing from its scutcheon of a permitted 
wrong. None else, of all the sons who have guided her, have dis- 
cerned so plainly her own intent and opportunity. The aims of 
her founders, the convictions of the men who declared her liberties 
and shaped her constitution, the profound and unifying purpose 
which makes her story and her destiny what they are to her citi- 
zens and to the world, have hardly been grasped so thoroughly by 
any other. Certainly, no other has interpreted them in terms so 
unmistakable. These achievements and this service had their ori- 
gins in beginnings almost primordial in their simplicity. His biog- 
raphy is the romance of our later history, as his influence, it is well 
said, seems like its providence. 

Recitation: "A Hero New," by James Russell Lowell. (See 

page 84.) By a Pupil. 
Exercise: "Lincoln's Story." By Four Pupils. 

Lincoln's Story. 

PUPIL I. 

In the most primitive of backwoods dwellings, on a lonely farm 
in a Kentucky clearing, Abraham Lincoln was born on the 12. h 
of February, 1809. This hovel was his home for the first seven 
years of his life, and then his father, Thomas Lincoln, moved his 
family to Indiana, where, with the help of the boy and his mother, 
another cabin was built, walled in on three sides, and with the 
fourth, in winter, hung with skins, to keep out the cold and possi- 



142 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

ble intruders. This, in time, gave place to another with four walls, 
and with furniture hewn rudely enough, and with no axe-strokes 
to spare, from the trees of the forest around them. Here, a year 
later, when he was nine years old, his mother died; and, lonely 
and neglected, the boy and his sister shivered in the cheerless 
cabin, or. in summer, roamed the woods like little savages, uncared 
for and uncomforted. But by and by a new mother came. — an 
energetic, capable, intelligent and kindly woman, who brought all 
manner of homely comforts into the dreary house. To Abraham, 
especially, her sway in the household meant a new era, and a last- 
ing one. She gave him comfort and sympathy, and she insisted 
on a measure of schooling, though even she could not secure for 
him, under the circumstances, more than meagre allowance. This, 
however, paved the way for better things, for he soon discovered 
that he could be his own schoolmaster, — a fact he never lost sight 
of his lifetime through. 

PUPIL n. 

Lincoln was a tall and vigorous lad, and his later boyhood was 
spent in work on his father's farm and those of his neighbors in 
hewing logs, chopping wood, driving teams, and tending store ; 
and, especially, in learning all that the few books to be obtained 
in the neighborhood, or that intercourse with the settlers them- 
selves, now fast becoming more numerous and intelligent, could 
teach him. His own efforts at self-improvement were unweary- 
ing. The wooden fire-shovel, — which could be planed off at need, 
or replaced by another, — served for slate and blackboard. On it, 
too, he wrote his first compositions, — committing them to paper 
if any came in his way, although, as the supply was always scanty, 
he was usually obliged to condense severely to make his pages 
hold what he had to say. He discovered that he could make rude 
speeches, also, and he had, besides, a fund of humor, as well as 
of kindliness, and a talent for mimicry which made him every- 
where a favorite. He seems to have had at this time a dim con- 
sciousness of powers and aptitudes out of the common, and he 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 143 

was regarded by his associates as a clever young man. But his 
scanty opportunities, the mental tasks, employments by which he 
was forced to support himself, his rustic speech and coarse cloth- 
ing — which remained for a long time of primitive simplicity, — and 
his natural uncouthness, obscured for a long time both his unusual 
abilities and the native force of his character and aspirations. 
When he was twenty-one his father moved again, this time to 
Illinois, the State with which his son's fame is most closely con- 
nected. Here, not far from Springfield, "Abe," as he was still 
called, having driven thither an ox-team with the household goods, 
helped build another log-cabin, and then, to fence the clearing, 
split the rails which have long since become historic by their con- 
nection with his career. 

Recitation: "Memory," by Abraham Lincoln. (See "Werner's 
Readings No. 46.") By a Pupil. 

PUPIL III. 

He was now twenty-one, and had begun life for himself. He 
had had in all only about a year's schooling, had read only such 
books as he could pick up from time to time, and had associated 
almost wholly with illiterate people. But it was at this time that 
he went to New Orleans, where he saw a slave auction, — a sight 
which he never forgot, and which gave him his first impressions 
of the horrors of slavery. Early in the next year he declared him- 
self a candidate for the General Assembly of Illinois, making the 
announcement, and setting forth his views, in a hand-bill he had 
prepared himself, sufficiently explicit and well-worded. In the in- 
terval before election the Black Hawk war broke out, and Lincoln 
went as captain of a company from Sangamon. On his return he 
was defeated at the polls, though the support he received was 
gratifying to him. A little before this he had borrowed a gram- 
mar, and had mastered it. A lawyer loaned him a copy of Black- 
stone, and he studied it diligently, and to such good purpose that 
we soon find him engaged with petty cases, usually without fees. 
His occupations for a long time were various and unremunerative. 



144 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

He was for a long time harassed with debts, and seemed to make 
little progress. But he was steadily gaining, nevertheless, both in 
his own resources and in popular esteem. In 1834 he was sent to 
the Assembly, or State Legislature, of which he was a member 
for six years following, and where, in a memorable protest, joined 
by only one other member, he recorded his conviction that he be- 
lieved "the institution of slavery to be founded on both injustice 
and bad policy." 

PUPIIv IV. 

He was now a successful lawyer, with an honorable place in his 
profession and in the society of Springfield. It was well known 
that he would defend no person whom he did not believe to be 
innocent, nor take a case unless he was persuaded that the right of 
it was on his side. With this conviction, he would often produce 
a remarkable impression, and his pleas were of proverbial weight 
with a jury. He was highly esteemed throughout his own State, 
and for three years, beginning with 1846, he represented his own 
district in the National Congress. Here he was able, on two or 
three occasions, to give memorable expression to his anti-slavery 
convictions, but when he relinquished his seat, in 1849, he almost 
despaired of ever seeing the day when the people would themselves 
espouse the cause he had at heart, and especially when he could 
himself render any service to it. That time, nevertheless, was 
not so far distant as he believed. Nine years later, in the cam- 
paign of 1858, he found himself the chief champion of the cause 
of the slave in a series of joint debates with Stephen A. Douglas, 
then senator from Illinois. Lincoln was made the opposing candi- 
date, and the issue hinged upon the supremacy of the slave-holding 
or of the free States. The campaign was a warm one, and Lincoln 
lost the election. He gained, however, some things far better 
worth the winning; — the following of the anti-slavery party, and 
a growing influence with all loyal upholders of the Union ; a knowl- 
edge of the public mind, and a prestige among the Northern lead- 
ers and the more thoughtful men in all sections, which made him, 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 145 

a year later, a presidential candidate, and then our president, at a 
great crisis in our country's history. It was well for the nation 
that it had chosen for its ruler a man of so strong a sense of right 
and justice, of a patience and sympathy so unfailing, of a patriot- 
ism so pure, and with so profound a sense of human dependence 
and the need of divine direction. 

Declamation: "America Forever," by Abraham Lincoln. (See 

"Werner's Readings No. 46.") By a Pupil. 
Declamation: Extract from Lincoln's First Inaugural. (See 

"Werner's Readings No. 46.") By a Pupil. 
Song : "Red, White and Blue" ("Columbia, Gem of the Ocean"). 

By the School. 
Declamation : "Common People's Sympathy for Lincoln." By 

a Pupil. 

Common People' s Sympathy for Lincoln. 

During the first administration of President Lincoln, and, in- 
deed, to the close of his life, one of the most noteworthy things 
about him was the hold he had on the sympathy of the common 
people. It was very soon evident that he had won their hearts, 
and to the end he retained their confidence. It was this, more 
than all else, which gave him authority, and manifest strength, and 
material resources. He had counselors, chosen with rare wisdom; 
generals of acknowledged skill and daring. The North discovered, 
too, her resources, and learned to use them. But it was because 
the rank and file of loyal men, — those of whom he said, "God must 
have loved the common people, He made so many of them," relied 
so completely on his integrity, his wisdom, his prudence and fore- 
sight, and upon his unfailing sympathy and patience, that he was 
able to lead them and their cause to final victory. And these quali- 
ties, also, when the war was done, helped to make possible that 
speedy acceptance of its decision and that loyalty to the principles 
it established which are almost an anomaly in the history of 
nations. 



146 



WEHNER'S READINGS NO. 45 



MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME. 



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LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 



147. 



MY OLD KEIs'TUCKV HOME— Continued. 




mer - ry, all hap - py and Iwright, By'n - by Hard Times oomea % • 

sor - row where all was de - light; The time has oome when th* 

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148 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Song: "My Old Kentucky Home." By the School. 
Declamation: "Lincohi's Belief in the Union." By a Pupil. 

Lincoln's Belief in the Union. 
Abraham Lincoln believed in the American Union. He was 
willing to make any sacrifice for its purification and preservation. 
He made all men see its possibilities as he himself saw them, and 
he inspired them with his own confidence in its ultimate triumph 
and larger destiny. To this deep conviction of his, since become, 
in good measure, our common inheritance, he nowhere gave clearer 
or more convincing expression than in his speech at the dedication 
of the national cemetery at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863. 

Declamation: "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address." (See "Wer- 
ner's Readings No. 46.") By a Pupil. 

Recitation : "To the Spirit of Abraham Lincoln," by Richard 
Watson Gilder. (See page 63.) By a Pupil. 

Declamation : "Lincoln's Faith in the Union." By a Pupil. 

Lincoln's Faith in the Union. 
Abraham Lincoln had faith in the Union because he believed, 
j)rofoundly, with a confidence which no peril or defection could 
shake, in the principles for which it stood and on which it had been 
founded. New conditions and events unforeseen had doubtless ob- 
scured them for many, but to him they were always plain, and in 
every choice of his their influence was dominant. It was at the 
beginning of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, in 1858, that some of 
his friends remonstrated with him for a certain explicit and mem- 
orable statement he had made regarding slavery, and of the danger 
of its retention within our borders. But the plea of expediency 
had no weight with him. "It is true," he said, "and I will deliver 
it as written. ... I would rather be defeated with these expres- 
sions in my speech held up and discussed before the people than be 
victorious without them." And, a little later, he closed a signifi- 
cant address with these memorable words, which suggest the prin- 
ciple by which he shaped his actions, and which furnish the key to 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 149 

his whole Hfe : "Neither let us be slandered from our duty by 
false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of 
destruction to the government or of danger to ourselves. Let us 
have faith that right makes might, and, in that faith, let us, to the 
end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." 

Recitation: ''Emancipation Group," by J. G. Whittier. (See 

page 96.) By a Pupil. 
Song : "America." By the School. 

Suggested Subjects for Essays. 
"Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood." 
"Lincoln and His Time.^' 
"President Lincoln and the Soldier." 
"Lincoln's War Cabinet." 
"Abraham Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence." 



GREAT OBJECT-LESSON. 



Exercise for Nine Children. 



First Child. 

PLEASE listen, dear friends, while little ones tell 
Of Abraham Lincoln we all love so well : 
He was bom in Kentucky — years ago, 
The 12th of February, this much I know. 

Second Child. 
His home a log-cabin, his parents were poor. 
Many trials and hardships he had to endure; 
He had not, as we have, good teachers, and few 
Were the books from which most of his knowledge he drew. 

Third Child. 
Oh, sad was his heart when his dear mother died. 
And no preacher to pray the lone mourner beside. 
Poor lad ! he was only nine years that sad day, 
When in the dark grave she was hidden away. 



150 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Fourth Child. 
His heart was so tender ! I know he was kind, 
For when the poor doggie was crying behind, 
He waded in dark, muddy stream, and the cur 
He took in his strong arms and carried him o'er. 

Fifth Child. 
I know he was honest, he never could bear 
To wrong any one in the least, if aware; 
Have you heard how he walked three long miles ere he'slept, 
To comfort a man that was sadly bereft? 

Sixth Child. 
So manly, so humble, so noble, so brave, 
The foe of the bully, the friend of the slave. 
No wonder the hearts of the people he won, 
Who made him the President, March — '61. 

Seventh Child. 
September, eighteen hundred and sixty-two. 
Throughout all the world how the glad tidings flew ! 
When Lincoln proclaimed the poor slave's liberty, 
And said all in bondage hereafter were free. 

Eighth Child. 
For freedom he labored, for freedom he died, 
For weak ones, and helpless, like Him crucified ; 
How the heart of the nation with sorrow did swell. 
When he by the hand of the murderer fell. 

Ninth Child. 
About Abr'am Lincoln, this one thing I know, 
He will long be remembered by high and by low, 
A great object-lesson — that one humble-born 
May rise and the highest position adorn, 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 151 

WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN COMPARED. 



Exercise for 10 Boys Impersonating George Washington 
AND 7 Boys Impersonating Abraham Lincoi^n. 



Stage is decorated with flags. At right side of stage is placed 
portrait of Washington ; at left side of stage is placed portrait of 
Lincoln. A long ledge is below each portrait on which may be 
placed series of cards. 

WASHINGTON boys, with cards held out of sight, enter 
and group themselves at side of stage facing audience. 
Boy nearest Washington portrait steps to side of portrait, and, 
looking at Washington, recites his lines and places card "W" on 
end of ledge. Every Washington boy does the same, with his 
special letter. When all cards are up, name of "Washington" is 
in view of audience. Lincoln boys enter and group at other side 
of stage and each in turn does as Washington boys have done, 
but for Lincoln portrait. When they have finished, name of Lin- 
coln is in view of audience on ledge. 

Washington Acrostic. 
W isdom is the principal thing ; therefore get wisdom ; and with 

all thy getting get understanding. I^rov. 4 : 7. 
A good man obtaineth favor of the Lord. Prov. 12:2. 
S eest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before 

kings ; he shall not stand before mean men. Prov. 22 : 29. 
H e that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread. Prov. 28 : 19. 
I n the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found. 

Prov. 10:13. 
N ot slothful in business ; fervent in spirit ; serving the Lord. 

Rom. 12:11. 
G ive instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. Prov. 9 :9. 
T he fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Prov. 9 : 10. 
pen rebuke is better than secret love. Prov. 27 : 5. 
N ow therefore hearken unto me, O ye children ; for blessed are 
^ they that keep my ways. Prov. 8: 32. 



152 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Lincoln Acrostic. 
L ove is the fulfilling of the law. Rom. 13 : 10. 
I ron sharpeneth iron ; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of 

his friend. Prov. 27: 17. 
N ot by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of 

hosts. Zech. 4 : 6. 
C ast thy bread upon the waters. Eccl. 11 : L 
pen thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the 

poor and needy. Prov. 31:9. 
L abor not to be rich. Prov. 23 : 4. 
N ow the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, 

and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. I Tim. 

1:5. 

Washington Boys form one long line across stage, facing audi- 
ence, and recite in concert following poem : 

George Washington. 
He might have been a king, 

Riding in regal style 
While men before him bowed 

Or humbly knelt the while. 

He might have been a king 

And built a palace grand, 
In beauty and in wealth 

The first in all the land. 

He might have been a king — 

What visions we behold 
Of splendor, pomp and powen 

When of great kings we're told. 

He might have been a king. 

But no ; he chose to be 
A simple citizen 

Of the country he made free. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 153 

\\ dshington Boys go back to place. Lincoln Boys come loi- 
ward and recite in concert following poem : 

Self-Reliance of Lincoln. 
Alone he worked his problems out. 

And to himself explained them: 
Which is the way, without a doubt, 

To be quite sure you've gained them. 

Alone with patient zeal he worked 

In wilderness or valley. 
He never once his duty shirked, 

Was never known to dally. 

Alone he studied law at night, 

Tho' books were far from plenty; 

To practise law was given the right 
When he was seven and twenty. 

Alone he gained the people's ears 

And never once did waver, 
But calmly lived down all their jeers, 

And soon had won their favor. 

Alone he waged the wordy war 

Against the "Little Giant," 
Who, from that time lost prestige, for 

His plans were proved too pliant. 

Alone thro' havoc, bloodshed, strife. 

His country's sorrows bore he, 
And finally laid down his life 

Before the dawn of glory. 

Alone and — this is paramount — 

He met the great Creator, 
And rendered up a strict account 

As all must soon or later. 



154 



WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 



Song: "Our Heroes/' (Tune: "Onward, Christian Soldiers.") 
Words of song are as follows and are sung as indicated : 

I. 



Washington Boys. 
Lincoln Boys. 
All. 

Washington Boys. 
Lincoln Boys. 
All. 



Washington Boys. 
Lincoln Boys. 
All. 



Washington Boys. 
Lincoln Boys. 
All. 

Washington Boys. 
Lincoln Boys. 
Ali,. 



Washington Boys. 
Lincoln Boys, 



Father of his country ; 
Brother of mankind ; 
Both were just such heroes 
As we love to find. 
Washington was truthful; 
Lincoln loved the truth, 
Each one learned this lesson 
In his early youth. 

chorus. 

Washington we love thee. 
Lincoln we love thee, 
Honored by our country 
Both will ever be. 

II. 

Tall and strong and manly; 
Manly, tall and strong; 
Both did duty noble. 
Cheers to both belong. 
Feared by treacherous Indians; 
Loved by every slave; 
Both men to their country, 
Loyal service gave. 

chorus. 
III. 

Mourned by many thousands 
From this world he went. 
Mourned by many thousands, — 
Martyred president. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 155 

All We will sing their praises 

With one heart and voice. 
In our country's heroes, 
We will all rejoice. 

CHORUS. 

All boys have gone back to group positions at sides of stage. 



TO NATURE'S NOBLEMAN. 



1. Lincoln, the honest man, who, without personal ambition, 
always supported by a strong perception of his duties, deserved to 
be called emphatically a great citizen. — Louis Phillipe, Due d'Or- 
leans. 

2. The past century has not, the century to come will not have, 
a figure so grand as Abraham Lincoln. — Emilio Castelar. 

3. A man of great ability, pure patriotism, unselfish nature, 
full of forgiveness for his enemies. — U. S. Grant. 

4. Abraham Lincoln was worthy to be trusted and to be loved 
by all his countrymen. — General Hozvard. 

5. His career teaches young men that every position of emi- 
nence is open before the diligent and worthy. — Bishop Matthew 
Simpson. 

6. He was warm-hearted ; he was generous ; he was magnani- 
mous. — Alexander H. Stephens. 

7. A great man, tender of heart, strong of nerve, of boundless 
patience and broadest sympathy, with no motive apart from his 
country. — Frederick Douglas. 

8. The life of Abraham Lincoln is written in imperishable char- 
acters in the history of the great American Republic. — John Bright. 

9. By his fidelity to the True, the Right, the Good, he gained 
not only favor and applause, but what is better than all — Love. 
— William Dean Hozvells. 

10. Lincoln never finished his education. To the night of his 
death he was a pupil, a learner, an inquirer, a seeker after knowl- 
edge. — Robert G. Ingersoll. 



156 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

DRILL OF THE PATRIOTS. 



Music : "Yankee Doodle."' Washington Boys in single file with 
hatchets across shoulders march to stage front. Leader 
halts boys on long line facing audience and takes position 
in front of them. He gives following commands and his 
boys respond : 

Indian Attack ! Boys squat low ; and, with hatchets raised out 
and high, creep entirely around stage, constantly alert and 
occasionally striking outward as if hitting some one with 
hatchet, then creeping on again until back to stage front. 
At stage front they stand with hatchets against shoulders. 

Cherry Tree Cut ! Boys start off with jubilant air and slash 
right and left as if trying a new hatchet on a tree. They 
jump back as if getting out of way of a tree falling. Then 
all skip back to places on long line and grin at leader. 

Prepare for Battle ! All stand at "Attention." 

Campfires ! March in two circles, one at each side of stage ; line 
breaking at center and leading around by going toward 
back to make circles. 

Pitch Tents ! Leaders at center lead way toward rear, march 
to front corners on diagonal lines. Turn and march to- 
ward center front. 

Pickets on Duty ! One from each outside corner marches to 
back and front corners of stage and stands with hatchet 
against shoulder a moment, then marches back and for- 
ward on corners. 

Carry, Arms! All hold hatchets against shoulders. 

Company, Load! Carry right foot to rear, left knee slightly bent. 
At same time hold hatchet as if about to load it. Carry 
right hand behind waist and keep it there long enough to 
open cartridge-box and take out cartridge ; grasp handle 
of hatchet again. Whole effect is as if one held a gun and 
was loading it. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 157 

Company, Aim ! Raise hatchet with both hands and place end 
firmly against shoulder, left elbow down, right elbow high 
as shoulder, body inclined slightly forward. Drop head 
slightly on handle end, close left eye, look along top edge 
of hatchet as if sighting to take aim. 
Company, Fire! Stamp right foot twice. 
Carry, Arms! 
Company, Load! 
Company, Aim ! 
Company, Fire! 
Company, March! Pickets return to line and leaders lead to 

former positions on stage. 
Music : "Our Emblem." Lincoln Boys carry large axes against 
shoulders, march to stage front in single file. Leader of 
line steps to front and gives commands : 
Sharpen Axes ! Boys go through movements of turning grind- 
stone and of sharpening axe, occasionally feeling edge of 
blade. Then go to place on line again. 
Chop Rails! Boys go through movements of placing rail on 

block and of chopping rail. 
Build Fence ! Boys go through movements of lifting rails and 

setting them up in fence, form. 
Repeat the above, "Sharpen Axes, etc." 
Boys, March ! March back to places at side of stage. 
Washington Boys step forward in couples and facing audience 
recite : 

We are the boys of war; 
And we fought most brave and true. 
We won the freedom sought, 
By men of every hue. 
Lincoln Boys step forward as Washington Boys march oflf stage 
and recite: 



158 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

We are the boys of peace ; 

And we fought most brave and true 

To keep the freedom won 

By brave George Washington. 

We set the black folks free, 
Our Union did we save, 
But many of our best men, 
Sleep in a soldier's grave. 

Hurrah for the soldier brave 
Who freedom strove to save. 
And for Lincoln brave and true 
And for Washington, our father, too. 
Lincoln Boys march off stage. 



A TRUE AMERICAN. 



Political Play in Five Scenes for Any Number of Boys. 



Stanley Schell. 



SCENE L 

Characters : Democrat. 

Republican. 

Abraham Lincoln. '' 

Time: 1856. 

Dem. Who is that tall, gawky, lanky looking object over yon- 
der? 

Rep. That one ? Why, that's Abraham Lincoln, "Honest Abe 
Lincoln," or "Old Honesty," as the boys call him. 

Dem. {^sneeringly]. Indeed! And, pray, what does he do? 

Rep. {^sarcastically^. Well, in the first place, he is a Springfield 
lawyer — a shrewd, close reasoner; and, in the second place, he is 
a capital stump-speaker. 

Dem. What — that? {sneers.'] 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 159 

Rep. Yes "that," and he is even more. His ready wit, unfail- 
ing good humor, and the candor which gives him his character for 
honesty, have won for him the admiration and respect of all who 
have ever heard him. If you have never heard him, you have a 
great treat in store. 

Dem. Oh, I've heard him \^disgustcdlyl^, and he's a dangerous 
man, sir ! A dangerous man, for he makes you believe what he 
says in spite of yourself. We'll have to shut him up very soon. 
He's too dangerous. \_Bxit.] 

[L1NC01.N approaches Republican.] 

Lincoln. Oh, don't be discouraged, if we don't win the elec- 
tion this year. We can't carry Pennsylvania. Those people down 
there are too strong for us. We'll be defeated this time. But we 
shall, sooner or later, elect our President. I — feel — confident — of 
that. 

Rep. Do you really think we shall elect a Free-soil president 
in 1860? 

Lin. I don't know. Everything depends upon the course of 
the Democracy. There's a big anti-slavery element in the Demo- 
cratic party, and if we could get hold of that, we might possibly 
elect our man in 1860. 

Rep. Well, all we can do then is to stand by our party and 
fight to the bitter end. 

[IValks toivard door, foUozvcd by Lincoln.] 

Lin. You are right there. For a fight it will be and to the 
bitter — ^bitter end. [Bxeitnt.] 



SCENE II. 

Characters : Republicans. 
Democrats. 
President Lincoln. 
Scene: White House corridor. 

Time: 1861. 

Dem. Hello, Repub. How'dy ! "Honest Abe," as you called 
him, won the race and surprised everyone. How proud you must 



160 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

be of your selection. Such a distinguished looking president! 
{^Sneers. ^ Such a credit to your party, Fm sure. 

Rep. [indignantly]. You needn't sneer at his looks. To be 
sure, he's not handsome, but we know one thing about him, an:l 
that is that — Jic — is- — honest. 

Dem. Do you question our leader's honesty? 

Rep. Oh, no, I would never do that. [Sarcastically.] I sim- 
ply stated what everybody knows that [emphatically] Abe — Lin- 
coln — is — an — honest — ]nan. 

Dem. Well, that's all the good you can possibly say about him. 
Just look at his clothes ! Look at his manners ! Look at his 
gloveless hands! Does his honesty cover all that? Is he a gen- 
tleman? [Sneers.] Drinks milk or water at dinner. Does he 
ever touch wine ? Oh, no. And such a man is President of the 
United States. His simplicity is too rural. It is disgusting to all 
gentletnen. 

Rep. If his "simplicity" is disgusting to all gentlemen, it most 
certainly is not to all — men. What if his hands are imgloved? 
Are they not 'always clean? And what if his clothes are very 
plain, are they not always neat? "His simplicity,'' as you call it 
— his simple-hearted manners make a deep impression on all that 
meet him. I have known women so touched by his sad face and 
his gentle bearing as to go away in tears. He — is — simple. He 
is a man — a true (gentleman. 

Dem. Oh, pufif away about "Honest Abe," you'll not pufif long. 
We'll oust him soon. You see if we don't. [Exit.] 
[E>it:r Lincoln. Sees Republican.] 

Lin. What! You here? This is indeed a pleasant surprise. 
Come right along and sit down. [5'//.y.] Well, we did win after 
all. 

[Enter three men. Not seeing Lincoln, they talk 
softly; one uses profane language in loud tone. Lin- 
coln hears it, rises suddenly, looks surprisedly at 
swearer and exclaims indignantly :] 

LiN. I thought that man was a gentleman. I was mistaken. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 161 

There is the door [pointing], and I wish you good-night. 

\^Excunt the tlij-ec men. Lincoln seats himself and 
goes on talking. Enter tzvo men; they do not see Lin- 
coln; they talk.] 

Another Dem. Abe Lincoln is a fool. Anyone can hoodwink 
him. He is one big piece of simplicity. You Republicans might 
have tried a little harder. [Sneeringly.] 

Another Rep. Don't you dare call Abraham Lincoln a fool. 
There is no more sensible man in the United States fhan "Honest 
Abe" and you'll find it out before you are many days older. You'll 
learn one lesson soon. Beneath that quietness and simplicity is 
fire! Fire unquenchable ! It awaits but the right moment to 
blaze forth in full flame. Take my advice, and don't brag so much. 
Say less and do more. 

[IValks toward door zvhile talking. Both exeunt.] 

Lin. Did you hear what they said? I hear such talk daily. 
Can you wonder any longer at my sorrowful face? My burden 
seems more than I can bear at times, and yet I must move forward, 
in spite of talk, and act as my conscience dictates. Next week 
there will be a howl among those Democrats when they hear my 
proclamation. The shock will take them centuries to recover from. 
But not another word. I've said enough already. You'll keep 
quiet. 

Rep. Oh, yes. You can trust me. [Exit Lincoln.] Poor 
man, the whole North sorrows with him. What will the outcome 
be? [Exit.] 



SCENE HL 

Characters: Democrat, Republican, 5 Democrats, 4 Repub- 
licans. 
Scene : Street in Washington near Capitol. 

Time: Latter part of 1862. 

First Dem. [to five Democrats]. Say men, have you heard 
Lincoln's proclamation? It means ruin — absolute ruin to the 
South. What shall we do? I really feel desperate, for if that 



162 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

proclamation goes into effect on January 1, 1863, I shall not have 
one penny left. 

Five Dem. Nor I, either. What can we do to stop it? 

First Dem. Oh, I don't know. I'm just about crazy. 

Five Dem. The Republicans have much to answer for. Their 
President, that "Honest Abe," by declaring the slaves free, has 
taken away our most valuable property, and we are poor indeed. 

Second Dem. I don't know what I'm going to do to get a 
living for my family. I never have worked, and it's rather late in 
life to begin. 

Third Dem. Oh, I realize all that too, and I have suffered 
much at the thought of work. To think that I should ever have 
to come to that. I'll have to do it. I'm sure of that, for all my 
money was invested in slaves, and I don't know where I can get a 
cent from. It will be work or starve now. 

First Dem. If ever a man feels like doing a desperate act, I 
do. Come, let's go. Here come some of those triumphant Re- 
publicans. Let's get out of sight before they can see how we men 
suffer. \^Exennt.'\ 

[Enter four Republicans, zvho talk together quietly, 
looking very happy. They zvalk across stage and out.'] 



SCENE IV. 

Characters: Republicans. 

Democrat. 
Scene : On street near White House. 

Time : 1864. 

Rep. What, you again ! This is pleasant. I suppose you were 
anxious to meet me so as to congratulate our party on Lincoln's 
re-ele6tion! Oh, no! I forgot you — you said you would oust 
him before long. [Sarcastically.] You may succeed next time. 
You don't look as though you relished your defeat. How did you 
like Abe's Proclamation? 

Dem. [angrily]. Don't talk to me about that Proclamation. 
Don't tread on dangerous ground. Your party has done its worst. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 163 

You can do no more. We can act now and zve ztnll. [Sneers.] 
Your President a slave-lover ! Make negroes your equal! A — tine 
— President — for our country. He's done for ! Mark my vv'ords ! 

Rep. Is that so? Why, he's just on the highsst round of the 
ladder, and can go no higher, except to heaven. 

Dem. Oh, he may reach that — or the other place, sooner than 
he expects. 

Rep. [>noving toward exit ivith Democrat]. Oh, I don't be- 
lieve that. He has a long life before him yet, and mtends, when 
this term has expired, to visit Europe. [Both exeunt.] 



SCENE V. 

Characters: Six or more men. ; 

Democrat. 
Republican. 
Scene : Group of men standing near corner talking excitedly in 
low tone. Enter Republican from one side of stage. En- 
ter Democrat from other side. 
Time : 1865 — day after Lincoln's assassination. 

Rep. [to Democrat]. Lincoln assassinated! Can it be that 
you meant that when you said his life would not be long? Oh, 
surely, your party never contemplated assassination ! 

Dem. No, they never did. It's awful — this assassination. It 
means utter ruin to the South — to the Democrats. Do people lay 
it to our door ? Oh, I hope not. That would be terrible. 

Rep. It's hard to say where to lay it. Whoever planned it was 
a coward — a dastard. The killing of Lincoln is your ruin. It 
was the worst thing that could have been done. Where will the 
South be now? 

Dem. Don't sneer, for God's sake. Whatever the South has 
done in the past it has felt justified in doing; but that awful crime 
— oh, we are lost, indeed. 

Rep. Do you think the South was justified in making men 
slaves? Do you not consider the keeping of men in bondage a 
wrong ? 



164 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Dem. No, I do not consider the keeping of slaves wrong. The 
blacks were intended to be slaves. 

Rep. Never ! Never ! Monstrous ! Slavery is the foulest 
stigma on our national escutcheon, which no true-hearted freeman 
could ever contemplate without sorrow in his heart and a blush 
upon his cheek. The continuation of slavery meant destruction of 
the American Union. Thank God ! Slavery is in the grave, and 
there is no power that can ever bring it back. Thank God that 
the day has arrived when we can look to the future for the Divine 
blessing upon our whole country and people. Thank God that He 
gave to us such a President. The whole world will yet ring with 
his praises — praises for a true American. 



CROWN FOR LINCOLN. 



For Four of Any Multifile of Four Pupils. 



EVERY pupil carries laurel-wreath. On stage center, facing 
audience, is bust or picture of Lincoln. 
Pupils enter singing to tune "America," and walk to positions 
around bust of picture: 

We come, with hearts so true, 
Our tributes to renew 
To Lincoln dear; 
His life we emulate. 
We'll crown him good and great. 
Each year we'll celebrate, 
His birthday dear. 
Four pupils step forward with wreaths held toward audience, 
recite following stanza, and hang wreaths on bust or portrait : 
O Lincoln! Great, wise, and good, 

Our gratitude to thee is due; , 

A man now loved and understood^ 
j As just, and loyal, and all true. j 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 165 

Four more pupils step forward, crowning Lincoln's bust or por- 
trait after they have recited : 

Struggling, striving, pushing onward, 

Ever doing what seemed best; 
Guiding, guarding, saving Union, 
Peace, and love, and rest. 
Four more pupils step forward, crowning Lincoln's bust or por- 
trait after they have recited : 

So, dear Lincoln we do crown thee. 

With our laurel-wreaths so fair; 
May thy name forever lead me. 
Love for you always to declare. 
All pupils now stand facing audience, reciting, the whole school 
joining in : 

Ever and ever shall we him love — 

His glorious deeds, his life, his fame; 
Ever and ever our voices shall ring, • 

With praise of dear old Lincoln's name. 



ACROSTIC. 



Hartie L Phillips. 



A midst the humblest of surroundings, on a February morn, 

B eneath the shelter of a rude hut, a true hero was born : - 

R emembrance of that cabin home will ever live in fame, 

A nd Kentucky — birthplace — honored by Abraham Lincoln's name. 

H ardships plenty him surrounded in his early years of toil, 

A nd as farmer, then surveyor, still self-education's call, 

Made ambition his true watchword, and success, at last, befall, 

L ike all great men, his mother's name he ever held most dear, 

I n revering her example, he saw his duty clear. 

N ever faltering, in troublous times as president we see, 

C almly and clearly stating, "No more slavery shall there be," 

ur Country reunited, floats the true flag of the free. 

L et us with bowed heads arise — this toast let us give, 

N able Abraham Lincoln, may his memory ever live. 



166 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

QUOTATIONS FROM LINCOLN. 



Give the boys a chance. 

The Union must be preserved; 

Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. 

I say "try," for if we never try, we never succeed. 

It is best not to swap horses in the middle of a stream. 

All that I am and all I hope to be I owe to my mother. 

As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time. 

When you can't remove an obstacle, plough around it! 

Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe. 

Suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. 
^ Gold is good in its place ; but loving, brave, patriotic men are 
better than gold. 

If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right 
where you are. 

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who 
inhabit it. 

God must like common people, or He would not have made so 
many. 

Have confidence in yourself, a valuable if not indispensable 
quality. 

For thirty years I have been a temperance man, and I am too 
old to change. 

Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much 
liberty and equality. 

Never be sorry for what you don't write ; it is the things you do 
write that you are usually sorry for. 

I have changed my mind. I don't think much of a man who 
is not wiser to-day than he was yesterday. 

Let not him who is homeless pull down the house of another, but 
let him labor diligently to build one for himself. 

People who tell what they do not know to be true, falsify as 
much as those who knowingly tell falsehoods. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 167 

If I live, this accursed system of robbery and shame in our 
treatment of the Indians shall be reformed. 

In law, it is good policy never to plead what you need not, lest 
you oblige yourself to prove what you can not. 

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing 
can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. — 1858. 

Let us have that faith that right makes might ; and in that faith 
let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. 

Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change 
public opinion can change the government practically just so much. 

Judge Lynch sometimes takes jurisdiction of cases which prove 
too strong for the courts. 

No party can be justly held responsible for what individual 
members of it may say or do. 

A man has no time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any 
man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him. 

If our sense of duty forbids slavery, then let us stand by our 
duty, fearlessl}^, and effectively. 

No duty is more imperative on the government than that of 
furnishing the people a sound and uniform currency. 

If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you 
can never regain their respect and esteem. 

In giving freedom to the slaves, we assure freedom to the free ; 
honorable alike in what we give and in what we preserve. 

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, 
and under a just God cannot long retain it. 

When it comes to a question between a man and a dollar, I am 
on the side of the man every time. 

If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that 
you are his sincere friend. — 18Jt2. 

The pioneer in any movement is not generally the best man to 
bring that movement to a successful issue. 

When you have an elephant on hand, and he wants to run away, 
better let him run. 



168 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while 
he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. 

Better give your path to the dog — even kilHng the dog would 
not cure the bite. 

The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every 
way he can, never suspecting that anybody is hindering him. 

Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery, I feel a strong 
impulse to see it tried on him personally.- — 1S65. 

The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, 
though we erring mortals may fail accurately to perceive them in 
advance. 

Reasonable men of the world have long since agreed that in- 
temperance is one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, of all 
evils among mankind. 

I know that the Lord is always on the side of right; but it is 
my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should 
be on the Lord's side. 

If this country cannot be saved without giving up the principles 
of Liberty, I was about to say that I would rather be assassinated 
on this spot than surrender it. 

History through the centuries has been teaching us that might 
makes right. Let it be our mission in this nineteenth century to 
reverse the maxim and to declare that right makes might. 

How willingly would I exchange places to-day with the soldier 
who sleeps on the ground in the Army of the Potomac ! — On re- 
ceiving had news from the army. 

Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, a firm reliance on Him 
who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent 
to adjust in the best way all our difficulties. 

Public opinion on any subject always has a "central idea." That 
central idea in our political public opinion at the beginning was 
"the equality of men." 

The one great living principle of all democratic government is 
that the representative is bound to carry out the known will of 
his constituents. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS ■ 169 

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not 
bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. 

The people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the 
courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the 
men who pervert it. 

It is with you, the people, to advance the great cause of the 
Union and the Constitution, and not with any one man. It rests 
with you alone. 

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the 
fruit of labor and could never have existed first. Labor is the 
superior of capital and deserves much higher consideration. 

Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are 
brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in a 
bond of fraternal feeling. 

Having chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, 
let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and 
with manly hearts. — Message to Congress. 

To sell or enslave any captured person on account of his color, 
and for no offense against the laws of war, is a relapse into bar- 
barism and a crime against the civilization of the age. 

You may fool all of the people some of the time ; you can fool 
some of the people all of the time ; but you cannot fool all of the 
people all of the time. 

Of the people, when they rise in mass in behalf of the Union 
and the liberties of their country, truly may it be said : "The 
gates of hell cannot prevail against them." 

The work of the Plymouth emigrants was the glory of their age. 
While we reverence their memory, let us not forget how vastly 
greater is our opportunity. 

He who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts 
statutes or pronounces decisions, for he makes statutes and de- 
cisions possible or impossible to be executed. 

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; 
but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that 
is more than self-government, that is despotism. 



170 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

Many free countries have lost their Hberty, and ours may lose 
hers ; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the 
last to desert, but that I never deserted her. — 1839. 

No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who 
toil up from poverty — none less inclined to take or touch aught 
which they have not honestly earned. 

I am not ashamed to confess that twenty-five years ago I was a 
hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flatboat — just what might 
happen to any poor man's son. I want every man to have a chance. 

When the time comes, I shall speak, as well as I am able, for the 
good of the present and the future of this country, for the good 
of both the North and the South of the country, for the good of 
the one and the other, and of all sections of the country. 

The United States government must not undertake to run the 
churches. When an individual in a church or out of it becomes 
dangerous to the public interest, he must be checked ; but let the 
churches, as such, take care of themselves. 

There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. 
Among free men there can be no appeal from the ballot to the 
bullet, and they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case 
and pay the costs. 

As the patriot of '76 did to the support of the Declaration of 
Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws let 
every American, every lover of liberty, pledge his life, his property 
and his sacred honor. 

I should be the most presumptuous blockhead upon this foot- 
stool if I for one day thought that I could discharge the duties 
which have come upon me since I came into this office, without 
the aid and enlightenment of One who is stronger and wiser than 
all others. 

My hope of success in this great and terrible struggle rests on 
that immutable foundation, the justness and goodness of God; 
and, when events are very threatening and prospects are very dark, 
I still hope in some way, which man cannot see, all will be well in 
the end, because our cause is just and God is on our side. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 171 

By a course of reasoning Euclid proves that all the angles in 
a triangle are equal to two right angles. Now, if you undertook 
to disprove that proposition would you prove it false by calling 
Euclid a liar? 

Each additional star added to that flag has given additional 
prosperity and happiness to this country, until it has advanced to 
its present condition; and its welfare in the future, as well as in 
the past, is in your hands. 

That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and 
thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other 
countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free 
institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance. 

That portion of the earth's surface which is owned and inhab- 
ited by the people of the United States is well adapted to the home 
of one national family, and it is not well adapted for two or more. 
— Message to Congress, December 1, 1862. 

I admonish you not to be turned from your stern purpose of 
defending our beloved country and its free institutions by any 
arguments urged by ambitious and designing men, but stand fast 
to this Union and the old flag. 

Posterity has done nothing for us ; and, theorize on it as we 
may, practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are made 
to think we are at the same time doing something for ourselves. 
—18Jt2. 

The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield 
and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over 
this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again 
touched, as surel}- they will be, by the better angels of our nature- 

I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy; I have 
never studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I 
must say, that if all that has been said by orators and poets since 
the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the 
women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct 
during this war. God bless the women of America. 



172 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

If the policy of the government upon vital questions affecting 
the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the 
supreme court, the instant they are made the people will have 
ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically 
resigned the government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. 

I congratulate you and the country, upon the spectacle of de- 
voted unanimity presented by the people at home, the citizens that 
form our marching columns, and the citizens that fill our squadrons 
on the sea, all animated by the same determination to complete the 
work our fathers began and transmitted. — ISGlf. 

I have made it plain that I think the negro is included in the 
"men" used in the Declaration of Independence. I believe the 
declaration that "all men are created equal" is the great funda- 
mental principle on which our free institutions rest; that negro 
slavery is violative of that principle. — 1858. 

This extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily 
upon all classes of people, but the most heavily upon the soldiers. 
For it has been said, "All that a man hath will he give for his 
life"'; and, while all contribute of their substance, the soldier puts 
his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The 
highest merit, then, is due the soldiers. — ISGJf. 

In this extraordinary war extraordinary developments have man- 
ifested themselves such as have not been seen in former wars ; 
and among these manifestations nothing has been more remarkable 
than these fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers and their fam- 
ilies, and the chief agents in these fairs are the women of America. 

These men well know that I am for freedom in the territories, 
freedom everywhere, so far as the Constitution and laws will per- 
mit, and my opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet 
with this Book [New Testament] in their hands, in the light of 
which human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to 
vote against me. I am nothing, but the truth is everything. I 
know I am right, for I know liberty is right, for Christ teaches 
it, and Christ is God. — From Lincoln's protest against opposition 
of certain clergymen to his candidacy for President. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 173 

STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN. 



HELPING THE MOTHER-BIRD. 



Frank E. Channon. 



IT was early spring. Dark, threatening clouds hung low ; a 
clatter of horse's hoofs on the muddy road, and around a bend 
swept a cavalcade of eight or nine men — lawyers on the regular 
circuit, intent on gaining shelter before the storm came upon them. 

A bird, with cry of distress, arose upon the wings of the storm, 
turned again and beat up in face of the wind, uttering piteous 
cries. 

The horsemen paid no attention to the frenzied bird. Yet, 
stay ! One man did. The tall, lanky man who role the big bay 
suddenly checked his horse. His gaze was directe 1 to where the 
bird had alighted, and was now frantically fluttering around. 

"Come along, Abe," shouted his companions. "What are you 
stopping for?" 

"Go ahead, I'll join you soon," came back the reply from the 
horseman, who dismounted, leaped over the fence and commenced 
to search. At length' he leaned over and picked up, carefully, a 
bird's nest. With the tenderness of a woman, he carried it to a 
tree, where he found for it a snug repose, protected from the 
searching wind. Then he retraced his steps and, searching about, 
picked up five newly-hatched, featherless birds. He placed them 
lovingly in the nest and watched with satisfaction, unmindful of 
the storm, the mother-bird fly quickly to them and spread her 
wings over them to protect them from the fury of the wind. Then 
he mounted his horse and galloped after his companions. 

The rider was drenched to the skin. Loud and long laughed 
his companions as he lounged around in his little bedroom, wait- 
ing for his suit to be dried in front of the kitchen fire. 



174 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

''Abe Lincoln, you are a soft one," they laughingly exclaimed. 

"I can't help that," retorted the man with the big heart. "I 
just had to stop. I would not have been able to sleep to-night 
or to fix my mind upon my cases to-morrow for thinking of the 
distress of that poor mother-bird." 



CABINET AND EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 



James Oppenheim. 



cCLELLAN had beaten Lee at Antietam. Washington 
was in wild jubilation. Cannons crashed; soldiers shout- 
ed ; bugles sounded ; flags fluttered ; people rushed up and down 
the avenues in wild joy. Members of the Cabinet hurried to the 
White House. They, excited and expectant, waited and waited — 
Lincoln was long in coming. Minute followed minute. They 
could wait no longer. Something had to be done. 

Suddenly in tire stillness came the old, familiar, slow steps, and 
in slouched the strange figure they knew so well. Queer mortal 
this — six feet four of blackness — wrapped in a shawl and topped 
by a stovepipe hat that had seen better days. 

He said : "Good morning." 

And then ke slowly drew out a little book and settled back 
comfortably in his chair. 

"Have you ever read," he began, slowly, " 'High-Handed Out- 
rage at Utica,' by Artemus Ward ?" 

The men of his Cabinet gasped. 

And then he read, in the drollest way, a page of nonsense. When 
he stopped, these staid history-making men were rocking and 
swaying in convulsive laughter. All save Stanton. He rose. He 
burst out vehemently : 

"Mr. President — this is a solemn occasion ! We cannot aflford 
to laugh ! Why do you laugh ?" 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 175 

Lincoln's face changed. that's all'" 

"I laueh because I must not cry!-thats ail-that s all . 
Those men understood in a Bash. They said nothing m«e^ 
, I , flee seemed to -row old and white. His trembling hand 
l';rfonhrs::::eru; paper. He sp^e slowly, distinctly, m 

:rr.r M^;;:" rii .sue it. i s.d noth,„g to ..0,., 

but I made the promise to myself, aiwl-to my IMaker.^ i 
a , " now driven out. I am going to keep -T 1-mise^ 

In the hush that followed, those men reali ed .t f,^^^^;^^.^ 
1 .1 „.ns done They were not even consulted. Ihey telt 
tn Smgi-s belore this tremendous soul-thi, common 
American ,,^^„ jo, the posi- 

, "^i^;- , r ::.- rm l rpos^lon. perhaps I have lost some 
7he 'c:::!i7e^^e of the Peop.e-.t^tom could I put in my^pl.e 
whom the people trust more ' ^^ ;«^,^ '^„„,,, „„i,h I feel 
lr;:ttLr rr^ttltllfclsulting you o„ the mam 

point. I cannot. You ""der;''>«l-' ■ ^„^ t„at the 

They did. There was a f 'We siknce they ^^^^ 

""^^r:;rrr ll^hrntrk: : dlr V to ens^ved 
h:rit';;Vre, l lU .» al, t. peop,., a n.v^;^arat,on 
of Independence, a new .\menca. «" « °™ ' ,^ ji,i„e event 
be a step further on than b^ or^- ^P^ ^^ '^,,, „berator. 
—one step nearer God. Uncom nau u Vmprica look- 

They never forgot his face as it was that „ron.ent-Amenca 
ing through his eyes, speaking through his hp^^ _ 

"0„ the Urst day of January, in the yea, of oar Loa 

,.,,.,;,. w.. and -^-f-'jx:;:..';:: - -.^ 



176 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

HOW LINCOLN'S LIFE WAS SAVED. 



Austin Gollaher. 



YES, the story that I once saved Abraham Lincoln's life is true. 
He and I had been going to school together for a year or 
more, and had become greatly attached to each other. Then 
school disbanded on account of there being so few scholars, and 
we did not see each other much for a long while. One Sunday 
my mother visited the Lincolns, and I was taken along. Abe and 
I played around all day. Finally, we concluded to cross the creek 
to hunt for some partridges young Lincoln had seen the day be- 
fore. The creek was swollen by a recent rain, and, in crossing 
on the narrow footlog, Abe fell in. Neither of us could swim. 
I got a long pole and held it out to Abe, who grabbed it. Then I 
pulled him ashore. He was almost dead, and I was badly scared. 
I rolled and pounded him in good earnest. Then I got him by the 
arms and shook him, the water meanwhile pouring out of his 
mouth. By this means I succeeded in bringing him to, and he was 
soon all right. Then a new difficulty confronted us. If our moth- 
ers discovered our wet clothes they would whip us. This we 
dreaded from experience, and determined to avoid. It was June, 
the sun was very warm, and we soon dried our clothing by spread- 
ing it on the rocks about us. We promised never to tell the story, 
and I never did until after Lincoln's tragic end. 



LINCOLN'S ARRIVAL IN SPRINGFIELD. 



Joshua Speed. 



LINCOLN had ridden into town on a borrowed horse, with 
no property save a pair of saddle-bags containing a few 
clothes. I was a merchant at Springfield, and kept country store, 
embracing dry-goods, groceries, hardware, books, medicines, bed- 
clothes, mattresses — in fact, everything that the country needed. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 177 

Lincoln came into the store with his saddle-bags on his arm. He 
said he wanted to buy furniture for a single bed. Mattress, blankets, 
sheets, coverlid, and pillow would cost seventeen dollars. He said 
that perhaps that was cheap enough ; but, small as the price 
was, he was unable to pay it. But if I would credit him till 
Christmas, and his experiment as a lawyer was a success, he would 
pay then; saying in the saddest tone, "If I fail in this I do not 
know that I can ever pay you." As I looked up at him I thought 
then, and I think now, that I never saw a sadder face. I said to 
him : "You seem to be so much pained at contracting so small a 
debt, I think I can suggest a plan by which you can avoid the debt, 
and at the same time attain your end. I have a large room with 
a double bed upstairs, which you are very welcome to share with 
me." "Where is your room?" said he. "Upstairs," said I. He 
took his saddle-bags on his arm, went upstairs, set them on the 
floor, and came down with the most changed expression. Beam- 
ing with pleasure, he exclaimed : "Well, Speed, I am moved." 



PROPER LENGTH OF A MAN'S LEGS. 



FRIENDS were gossiping in Lincoln's presence upon what 
they considered the proper length of a man's legs, and 
finally appealed to him. 

"Abe, what do you think about it?" 

Lincoln had a far-away look, as he sat with one leg twisted 
around the other, but he responded to the question. 

"Think about what?" 

"Well, we're talking about the proper length of a man's legs. 
We think yours are too long and Douglas's too short, and we 
would like to know what you think is the proper length?" 

"Well," said Lincoln, "that's a matter that I've never given any 
thought to, so, of course, I may be mistaken ; but my first impres- 
sion is that a man's legs ought to be long enough to reach from 
his body to the ground." 



178 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

VISIT TO THE FIVE POINTS SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



[Lincoln's first visit to New York was in February, 1860. An 
account of his visit to the Five Points Sunday School is told, first, in 
his own words, and, secondly, in the words of the Superintendent of the 
Sunday School. Five Points at that time was considered the most 
squalid and criminal part of New York, and was one of the "sights" of 
the city for visitors.] 

I. — Lincoln's Account. 

WHEN Sunday came I didn't know exactly what to do. 
Washbtirne proposed to take me to the Five Points Sun- 
day School. I was very much interested by what I saw. Pres- 
ently, Mr. Pease, the superintendent, came up and wanted us to 
speak. Washburne spoke, and then I was urg^ed to speak. I 
told them I did not know anything about talking to Sunday 
Schools, but Mr. Pease said many of the children were friendless 
and homeless. I thought of the time when I had been pinched 
by terrible poverty. And so I told them that I had been poor ; 
that I remembered when my toes stuck out through my broken 
shoes in winter ; when my arms were out at the elbows ; when I 
shivered with the cold. And I told them there was only one rule : 
That was, always do the very best you can. I told them that I 
had always tried to do the very best I could, and that, if they 
would follow that rule, they would get along somehow. A.nd 
when the school was dismissed, the teachers came up and shook 
hands with me, and thanked me. 

II. — Superintendent's Account. 

One Sunday morning I saw a tall, remarkable-looking man 
enter the room and take a seat among us. He listened with fixed 
attention to our exercises, and his countenance expressed such gen- 
uine interest that I approached him and suggested that he might 
be willing to say something to the children. He accepted the in- 
vitation with evident pleasure ; and, coming forward, began a sim- 
ple address which at once fascinated every little hearer, and hushed 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 179 

the room into silence. His language was strikingly beautiful, and 
his tones musical with intense feeling. The little faces would 
droop into sad conviction as he uttered sentences of warning, and 
would brighten into sunshine as he spoke cheerful words of prom- 
ise. Once or twice he attempted to close his remarks, but the 
imperative shout, "Go on ! Oh, do go on !" would compel him to 
resume. As I looked upon the gaunt, sinev/y frame of the 
stranger, and marked his powerful head and determined features, 
now touched into softness by the impressions of the moment, I 
felt an irrepressible curiosity to learn something more about him, 
and while he was quietly leaving the room I begged to knov.' his 
name. He courteously replied : "It is Abraham Lincoln, from 
Illinois." 



PERSONALITY OF LINCOLN. 



Isaac N. Arnold. 



IN any courtroom in the United States, Lincoln would have 
been instantly picked out as a Western man. His stature, 
figure, dress, manner, voice, and accent indicated that he was of 
the Northwest. In manner, he was always cordial and frank, and 
although not without dignity, he made every person feel quite at 
his ease. I think the first impression a stranger would get of him, 
whether in conversation or by hearing him speak, was that here 
was a kind, frank, sincere, genuine man of transparent truthful- 
ness and integrity ; and before Lincoln had uttered many words, 
he would be impressed with his clear, good sense, his remarkably 
simple, homely but expressive Saxon language, and next by his 
wonderful wit and humor. Lincoln was more familiar with the 
Bible than any other book in the language ; and this was apparent 
both from his style and illustrations, so often taken from that 
book. He verified the maxim that it is better to know thoroughly 
a few good books than to read many. 



180 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

LINCOLN'S STORIES IN COURT. 



THE following is told by a court-clerk in Lincoln's day: "I 
was never fined but once for contempt of court. Judge 
David Davis fined me $5. Lincoln had just come in, and leaning 
over my desk told me a story so irresistibly funny that I broke out 
into a loud laugh. The judge called me to order in haste, saying, 
'This must be stopped. Lincoln, you are constantly disturbing this 
court with your stories.' Then to me, 'You may fine yourself five 
dollars for your disturbance.' I apologized, but told the judge 
that the story was worth the money. In a few minutes the judge 
called me to him. 'What was the story Lincoln told you?' he 
asked. I told him, and he laughed aloud in spite of himself. 'Re- 
mit your fine,' he ordered." 



CARRYING A GIRL'S TRUNK. 



LINCOLN, while member of Congress, was going down the 
street in Springfield, 111., one morning, when he saw a little 
girl standing at the gate with her hat and gloves on, as if ready 
for a journey, sobbing as if her heart would break. 

"Why, what's the matter?" inquired Lincoln. She poured her 
broken little heart out to him, telling how she had arranged to 
take her first trip on the cars that day, and the expressman had 
failed to come for her trunk, and she was going to miss the train. 
"How big is the trunk? There's still time, if it isn't too big." 
She took him to her room, where her little, old-fashioned trunk 
stood, locked and tied. "Oh !" he cried, "wipe your eyes and come 
on quick." And before she knew what he was going to do, he had 
shouldered the trunk, was downstairs and striding out of the yard. 
Down the street he went, as fast as his long legs could carry him. 
The little girl trotted behind him, drying her tears as she went. 
They reached the station in time. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 181 

LINCOLN AND THE LITTLE HORSE. 



Mary K. Hyde, 



ONE June morning in 1862 there was great excitement in the 
Seventy-first Regiment as it lay encamped about seven or 
eight miles out from Washington. Every soldier was dressed in 
his best uniform, all the camp was spick-and-span, and there was 
a general air of waiting-for-company about everything. 

For the President was coming. The colonel always waited 
impressively after that statement, as he seemed to feel the same 
thrill that stirred the regiment on that memorable occasion so 
many years ago. 

Word had been received the night before that the President 
would be out in the morning to review the troops. We had not 
seen him for nearly a year. At that time, for three months we 
had been stationed at the Navy Yard, and the President had driven 
down about every evening to dress parade. Indeed, some of the 
other regiments grew a bit jealous and dubbed us 'Lincoln's pets,' 
especially after we had been chosen as his guard of honor upon 
one occasion. 

However, we had been called to the front and had been en- 
gaged in some hard fighting, and had now been sent back to help 
guard the city of Washington. 

We were all on the alert when we saw four carriages drive 
into the field. The regiment was at once assembled for regular 
review. The persons in the carriages alighted. The tall man in 
the tall hat, whom we recognized the length of the field, started 
down toward us. Some one called to him and he turned back. 
There seemed to be an excited discussion. Lincoln shook his head 
at first, then laughed and nodded and evidently agreed to do what 
had been suggested. 

The colonel called up two men who hurried ofiE". In a short 
time they came back, leading the funniest little yellow horse you 
ever saw. It wasn't bigger than a pony. 



182 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

The President laughed heartily when the little horse appeared. 
There was no question of mounting the animal. All the President 
had to do was to swing one of his long legs over the beast's back, 
and there he was, sitting astride, his feet nearly touching the 
ground. The stirrups hung loosely by the horse's side, useless to 
its present rider. 

And so the President rode the length of the line, astride the 
little horse, his legs dangling, his trousers pulled up several inches, 
showing his white stockings above his shoe-tops. 

He couldn't help laughing, and neither could we. But he took 
off his hat and rode along with as much dignity as he could assume 
in such a grotesque position. 

Then the band started to play 'Hail to the Chief.' The band 
was really only a drum-corps with one trumpeter, but they were 
determined to do their best. 

Trrrr-at, tat-ta-tat, tat-ta-tat — rattled the drums. 

Toot, too-toot-toot, too-too-toot — blew the trumpet. 

Then all of a sudden, toot-too-too-toot, sque-e-e — and the 
trumpet busted, and the drums rattled on through the rest of the 
tune accompanied only by the laugliter of the men who could not 
restrain themselves however hard they tried. 

The President laughed, too, for you know he had a keen sense 
of fun, and altogether his elTorts and ours to be polite and digni- 
fied seemed to be upset that day. 

After Mr. Lincoln had ridden the length of the line, he passed 
around to the rear, while the regiment countermarched and passed 
in review before him. Then, getting down off that silly little 
horse, the great and good man whom we all loved and honored, 
walked over to us and went down the line shaking hands with 
each of us seven hundred men. 

I shall never forget the beautiful smile lighting up his plain 
features, nor the sweet voice— the sweetest I have ever heard — 
nor the look of gentle sadness that came over his face repeatedly 
as the tears would spring to his eyes. He wanted to cheer us 
Up and make us happy by his visit and by his personal greeting to 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 183 

each man of us. But he could never seem to shake off the feeUng 
of responsibiHty for sending thousands of men to face death. 

When he entered his carriage again and drove away, the regi- 
ment chaered three times three and the tiger : 

Hur-rah ! 

Hur-rah ! 

Hur-rah ! 

Tiger ! 
and he rode away bareheaded. 



LINCOLN AND HIS CHILDREN. 



James Morgan. 



CHILDREN hked Lincohi. His four children were all boys. 
Their shouts at play were the only notes of joy that came 
to the ears of their care-burdened father. Their voices, however 
loud, did not annoy him, and he never seemed to be impatient of 
their intrusions upon him, no matter how grave might be the 
business which he had in hand. Often he went out into the 
grounds and joined in their games, regardless of his dignity and 
the amazement of the lookers-on. Sometimes he played ball with 
them and their playmates, running the bases with his long legs 
as if he had no other purpose in life. 

Willie died in Washington and his body was taken from Wash- 
ington, months afterward, to Springfield, III, in the same funeral 
procession with his father's body. After Willie's death, little Tad 
received a double share of his father's affection. Generally they 
slept together, and no time or place was sacred from the boy. He 
was free to interrupt his father on any occasion and crawl over 
him even at a meeting of the Cabinet. The President liked to go 
through picture-books with him. and laughed carelessly when 
teachers or tutors complained that he did not pay enough attention 
to his school books. 



184 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

LEW WALLACE AT THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE. 



[General Wallace, who went to the debate strongly prepossessed In favor of 
Douglas, describes Lincoln's personality and oratory as follows:] 



PRESENTLY there was a commotion in the crowd, and a 
general looking that way, and Air. Lincoln mounted the 
steps. He paused on the platform, and took a look over the crowd 
and into the countenances near by, and there was a smile on his 
lips and a whole world of kindness in his eyes. The thin neck 
craned out over his sweat-wilted shirt-collar while he bowed to 
acquaintances. Mr. Douglas's suit had come from an accomplished 
tailor ; Air. Lincoln's spoke a slop-shop. The multitude impressed 
me as the most undemonstrative of all I had ever seen on a politi- 
cal occasion. Every man of them, however, was palpitating with 
an anxiety too great for noise. 

Mr. Lincoln arose, straightening himself as well as he could. 
But for the benignant eyes, a more unattractive man I had never 
seen thus the center of regard by so many people. His voice was 
clear without being strong. He was easy and perfectly self-pos- 
sessed. The great audience received him in utter silence. 

I confess I inwardly laughed at him ; only the laugh was quite 
as much at the political manager who had led him out against Mr. 
Douglas. Nevertheless I gave him attention. Ten minutes — I 
quit laughing. He was getting hold of me. The pleasantry, the 
sincerity, the confidence, the amazingly original way of putting 
things, and the simple, unrestrained manner withal, were doing 
their perfect work; and then and there I dropped an old theory, 
that to be a speaker one must needs be graceful and handsome. 
Twenty minutes — I was listening breathlessly. 

Thirty minutes — the house divided against itself was looming 
up more than a figure of speech. My God, could it be prophetic ! 
An hour — the limit of the speech. Mr. Lincoln took his seat. 
How many souls sat down with him — that is, how many of the 
unbelieving like myself were converted to his. thinking — I could 
not know. 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 185 

AS ORATOR. 



Horace White. 

AT first glance Lincoln's appearance was not attractive. He 
was tall, bony, angular, and destitute of all the graces except 
a winning cast of countenance with which he greeted all comers ; 
but that counted for much. Kindness and honesty beamed from 
his eyes and from every wrinkle on his face. 

It was a warmish day in early October and Mr. Lincoln was 
in his shirt-sleeves when he stepped on the platform. I observed 
that, although awkward, he was not in the least embarrassed. He 
began in a slow and hesitating manner, but without any mistakes 
of language, dates, or facts. It was evident that he had mastered 
his subject, that he knew what he was going to say, and that he 
knew he was right. He had a thin, high-pitched falsetto voice of 
much carrying-power, that could be heard a long distance in spite 
of the bustle and tunnilt of a crowd. He had the accent and 
pronunciation peculiar to his native state, Kentucky. Gradually 
he warmed up with his subject, his angularity disappeared, and 
he passed into an attitude of unconscious majesty. 

Progressing with his theme, his words began to come faster 
and his face to light up with the rays of genius, -and his arms 
and body to move in unison with his thoughts. His gestures 
would not be called either graceful or ungraceful. They were the 
natural expression of the man, and so perfectly adapted to what 
he was saying that anything different from it would have been 
quite inconceivable. Sometimes his manner was very impassioned, 
and he seemed transfigured with his subject. Perspiration would 
stream from his face, and each particular hair would stand on end. 
Then the inspiration that possessed him took possession of his 
hearers also. His speaking went to the heart because it came from 
the heart. I have heard celebrated orators who could start thun- 
ders of applause without changing any man's opinion. Mr. Lin- 
coln's eloquence was of the higher type which produced conviction 
in others because of the conviction of the speaker himself. 



186 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

TAD LINCOLN AND THE STREET URCHINS. 



BOTH the steward and the cook had remonstrated with "Mas- 
ter Tad"' upon bringing into the kitchen of the White House 
"such squads of poor, dirty, hungry street-urchins to be fed," and 
at last Peter said that Mrs. Lincohi must be told. 

Tad was much aggrieved, ran upstairs to see his mother him- 
self; and, on finding her out, searched the- place for his busy father. 
Meanwhile, the small objects of his charity waited at the lower 
door — for Peter had absolutely refused to let them "step inside." 
The indignant boy spied his father just crossing the yard with head 
bowed, his eyes to the ground, talking earnestly to Mr. Seward, 
as they walked to the Department of State together. He cried 
out to him at once : 

"Father, father I Can't I bring those poor, cold, hungry boys 
home with me whenever I want to? Isn't it our kitchen?" 

By this time Tad had his father by the hand. The President 
stopped to listen to the frantic appeal. 

"Can't I give them a good warm dinner to-day, say? They're 
just as hungry as bears, and two of 'em are boys of a soldier, too; 
and, father, Pm going to discharge Peter this minute if he don't 
get out the meat and chickens and pies and all the things we had 
left yesterday. Say, mayn't I? Isn't it our kitchen, father?" 

Secretary Seward was shaking udth laughter. Mr. Lincoln 
turned to him with a twinkle. "Seward, advise with me. This 
case requires diplomacy." • 

Mr. Seward patted Tad on the back and said he must be'care- 
ful not to run the Government into debt, and the President took 
Tad's little brown hands in his own big one, and with a droll 
smile bid him to "run along home and feed the boys," and added : 

"Tell Peter that you are really required to obey the Bible by 
getting in the maimed and the blind, and that he must be a better 
Christian than he is." 

Soon ten small boys were with Tad, cracking nuts and having a 
"state dinner." 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS Ig; 

SHORT ANECDOTES ABOUT LINCOLN. 



THE following shows Lincoln's quaint diplomatic tact: Dur- 
ing the war John Ganson of Buffalo was a member of Con- 
gress. His face and his head were hairless and polished like a 
billiard-ball. He was a Democrat, but supported the President. 
The conditions of the arm.y were very blue in the east and in 
the west. Ganson came in one day and said : "Mr. President, I 
am risking my re-election in supporting your war-measures. The 
campaign seems very unsatisfactory. Of course, I will not give 
out anything you tell me. What is the situation at the front?" 
Mr. Lincoln, in his searching and sad way, looked at him for a 
m.oment as if he was about to reveal the secret of the whole 
army, and then tumbled Ganson out of the reception-room by 
saying: "Ganson, how clean you shave." 

While Mr. Lincoln was practising law in Springfield he received 
a letter from New York asking about the financial standing of a 
brother lawyer. He wrote : "I know the gentleman of whom you 
inquire. He has a wife and baby that ought to be worth fifty 
thousand dollars to any one ; a table for his books and papers 
worth one dollar and fifty cents, and a big rat-hole in the corner 
of his office that is worth looking into." 

Not long after his election to the presidency, Lincoln received a 
letter from a little girl living in New York. She told him that 
she had seen his picture and that she thought "he would be a better 
looking man if he would let his beard grow." Shortly after, when 
Lincoln was making a speech in New York, he made a reference to 
this letter and asked if the little girl was present. This proved to 
be the case and Lincoln, calling her to him, took her up in his 
arms and kissed her. Then, turning to his audience, he said that 
he meant always to let his beard grow, and he kept his word as 
long as he lived. 

One day a delegation called at the White House to ask for the 
appointment of a certain gentleman as commissioner to the Sand- 



188 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

wich Islands. Besides the man"s fitness for the place, they urged 
that he was in ill-health and that the warm climate would be a 
great benefit to him. "Gentlemen," replied the President, "I am 
sorry to say that there are eight other applicants for that place, 
and they are all sicker than your man." 

In the Black Hawk War, Lincoln, then a raw young Westerner, 
had command of a company. Once, when they were marching 
across a field, the men came to a gate and were obliged to stop. 
Lincoln's knowledge of tactics was rather limited and he could 
not think of the proper command f(5r getting a company endwise 
in order that they might pass through the gate. So he shouted: 
"This company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in 
again on the other side of the gate !'' 

William D. Somers, an Illinois lawyer, tells the following story : 
In 1855, George High was in jail for horse-stealing. He asked 
me to get Lincoln to aid in his defence. When Lincoln came, as 
was his custom, to attend court, I went with him to consult our 
client. We found his wife with him in the Jail. After consulting 
about the matter of the defence, the subject of our fee came up, 
when High said he had but $10, which he handed to Lincoln. 
Lincoln, seeing from the condition of the wife that she would soon 
need pecuniary assistance, asked High: "How about your wife, 
will she not need this?" He was answered that she would get 
along somehow. Lincoln then gave her $5 of the money, and 
divided the balance between himself and me, $2.50 to each. 

I dropped in upon Air. Lincoln and found him counting green- 
backs. "This, sir," said he, "is something out of my usual line ; 
but a President of the United States has a multiplicity of duties 
not specified in the Constitution or Acts of Congress. This is 
one of them. This money belongs to a poor negro, a porter in the 
Treasury Department, and who is in the hospital, sick with the 
small-pox. I have been at considerable trouble to get it for him. 
I am now dividing the money, and putting by a portion, labelled, 
in an envelope, according to his wish." 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 189 

As a volunteer company was being drilled, the lieutenant said : 
"Now, I will teach you the manner of surrendering arms ; so, in 
case you ever have to do it, you will know how to do it gracefully." 
Mr. Lincoln, standing near, interrupted : "Hold on ! Lieutenant, 
I'll teach them myself." He snatched a musket from a soldier, 
raised it to his shoulder a moment, as if in the act of firing upon 
an enemy; then letting it drop from his hand, he staggered for- 
ward and fell with the musket beneath him, as if shot through the 
heart. Springing up again, he cried : "That's the way to surrender 
arms !" 

When Lincoln was about thirty years of age he volunteered to 
defend fifteen women who had "smashed" a wine parlor, and in 
his speech said : "May it please the court, I will say a few words 
in behalf of the women who are arraigned before your honor and 
the jury. I first suggest that there be a change in the indictment, 
so as to have it read, 'The State against Mr. Whisky,' instead of 
'The State against the women.' The man who has persisted in 
selling whisky had no cegard for their well-being or the well-being 
of their husbands and sons. He has no fear for God nor for man, 
neither has he had any regard for the laws of the State. His 
groggery has been a nuisance. These women, finding all moral 
suasion of no avail, with this fellow oblivious to all tender appeals, 
alike regardless of their prayers and tears, in order to protect their 
households and promote the welfare of the community, united to 
suppress the nuisance. The good of society demanded it sup- 
pressed." 

Lincoln's son Robert declares : "Father never used liquor or 
tobacco in any form. He preached to his boys : 'Don't drink, don't 
smoke, don't chew, don't swear, don't gamble, don't lie, don't cheat. 
Love your fellowmen and love God. Love truth, love virtue, and 
be happy.' " 

Lincoln received about one year of schooling, after- his mother 
had taught him to read. He borrowed a Shakespeare and spent 
his spare moments in copying passages on boards with a piece of 



190 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

charcoal. Later he bought a copybook and copied the quotations 
into it. This habit of writing down what pleased him remained 
through life. By the time he was of age he could repeat several 
plays of Shakespeare, and knew the Bible more thoroughly than 
many clergymen. 

"We shall not take your case," Lincoln said to a man who had 
shown that by a legal technicality he could win property worth 
$600. "You must remember that some things legally right are not 
morally right. We shall not take your case, but will give you a 
little advice for which we will charge you nothing. You seem to 
be a sprightly, energetic man ; we would advise you to try your 
hand at making six hundred dollars in some other way." 

When Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861, to 
assume the duties of President, March 4 following, he borrowed 
enough money to last for necessary expenses of his family, till he 
could get a month's salary. When elected President, he is said 
to have been worth not over $10,000. 

Lincoln, meeting in the park a negro who told him a pitiful 
story, wrote out the check: "Pay to colored man with one leg. 
Five Dollars." 

A little girl who had been told that the President was very 
homely, was taken by her father to see the President at the White 
House. Lincoln's great love for children easily won her confi- 
dence. He took her upon his knee and chatted with her for a 
moment in his merry way, when she turned to her father and 
exclaimed : "Oh, Pa ! he isn't ugly at all ; he's just beautiful !" 

During the balloting of the 1860 Chicago Republican Conven- 
tion Lincoln was at the telegraph office in his home city, Spring- 
field, Illinois. When the telegraph operator handed him a paper 
bearing, "Mr. Lincoln, you are nominated on the third ballot," 
Lincoln looked at it in silence ; then arose, and, putting the paper 
into his pocket, said quietly : "There's a little woman down at our 
house who would like to hear this. .I'll go down and tell her." 



J 



LINCOLN CELEBRATIONS 191 

Three small girls, poorly clad, followed some visitors into the 
White House. A reception was in full swing. As they were 
hastening through the reception-room with trepidation, Lincoln 
saw them and called to them : "Little girls, are you going to pass 
me without shaking hands?" They stopped, then with evident 
shyness came forward. Lincoln bent his tall, awkward form down, 
and shook each little girl warmly by the hand and smiled at them. 
They went away very happy. 

Mr. Huntington, cashier of a Washington bank, remarked to 
one of Lincoln's friends : "That President of yours is the oddest 
man alive. Why, he endorses notes for 'niggers' !" The facts 
were : A colored man, in danger of losing his house for want of 
$150, went to Lincoln and told his story. The result was that the 
colored man made *a two months' note which Lincoln endorsed. 
The note was discounted, but the colored man failed to pay. In- 
stead of serving the customary protest notice, the cashier took the 
note in person to Mr. Lincoln, who at once offered to pay it. Mr. 
Huntington said : "Mr. President, you have tried to help a fellow- 
mortal along. I am not willing that you should suffer this entire 
loss; we will divide it between us." And the affair was thus 
settled. 

Some gentlemen from the West called at the White House, 
excited and troubled about the commissions or omissions of the 
Administration. The President heard them patiently and replied : 
"Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in gold 
and you had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across the 
Niagara River on a rope. Would you shake the cable or keep 
shouting at him, 'Blondin, stand up a little straighter — Blondin 
stoop a little more — go a little faster — lean a little more to the 
north — lean a little more to the south ?' No ; you would hold your 
breath as well as your tongue and keep your hands off until he 
was safe over. The Government is carrying an enormous weight. 
Untold treasure is in their hands; they are doing the very best 
they can. Don't badger them. Keep silence, and we will get you 
safely across." 



192 WERNER'S READINGS NO. 45 

While Lincoln was clerking in a grocery at New Salem, Illinois, 
he discovered he had taken six and one quarter cents too much 
from a customer, so he walked three miles that evening after store 
closed to return the money. This and other similar acts caused 
him to be called "Honest Abe." 

To a politician who wished to be empowered to negotiate reward 
for promises of influence in Chicago Convention, in I860, Lincoln 
replied : "No, gentlemen ; I have not asked the nomination, and I 
will not now buy pledges. If I am nominated and elected, I shall 
not go into the Presidency as the tool of this man or that man, or 
as the property of any factor or clique.'" 

Lincoln was constantly bothered by busybodies who knew all 
about running the war and were always offering advice. One day 
one of these bores asked Lincoln : "How many men have the Con- 
federates in the field ?" "'About twelve hundred thousand/' replied 
Lincoln. "Oh, my, not so many as that, surely." "They have 
fully twelve hundred thousand, no doubt of it," rejoined Lincoln. 
"You see, all of our Generals, when they get whipped, say the 
enemy outnumbers them at least three to one, and I must believe 
them. We have four hundred thousand men in the field, and three 
times four make twelve — don't you see?" 

Speaker Joseph G. Cannon relates : "I met Lincoln only once 
after his election to the Presidency. He was on his way to Charles- 
ton, 111., to bid his stepmother good-by before going to Wash- 
ington. He was traveling on a day train in an ordinary coach and 
was continuously surrounded by other passengers, some congratu- 
lating him, some advising him, but most of them simply crowding 
to shake his hand and bid him good-by and godspeed. They 
seemed to know him or felt that they knew him. There was no 
change in the man by reason of his elevation to the first place in 
the nation, and his neighbors and friends felt that he was one 
of them. He made his last visit to his stepmother, who indeed had 
been a mother to him in childhood and in manhood. She was, in 
the Western phrase, just a common, homespun woman, and to her 

he remained to the end 'my boy Abe'." 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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HoIIinger 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3-1955 



